THE  PRESIDENTS 
OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

VOLUME  I 


If  you  would  understand  history,  study  men. 

CHARLES  KINGSLEY. 


From  the  paiutiug  by  Gilbert  Stuart  in  the  Boston  Athena-urn 


•THE  PRESIDENTS 

OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 

»i» 

1789-1914 


BY 


JOHN   FISKE,   CARL  SCHURZ,   ROBERT  C.  WINTHROP, 

GEORGE  TICKNOR  CURTIS,  GEORGE  BANCROFT, 

JOHN  HAY,   AND  MANY  OTHERS 


EDITED  BY 

JAMES  GRANT  WILSON 


ILLUSTRATED 


VOLUME  I 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 
1914 


.,,11 


COPYRIGHT,  1914 
BY  CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


PREFACE 

MANY  of  the  brief  biographies  of  the  twenty- 
seven  presidents  of  the  United  States  contained  in 
these  four  volumes  were  written  by  distinguished 
scholars  and  statesmen  who  were  peculiarly  fitted 
by  their  training  or  contact  with  our  chief  magis 
trates  to  render  ample  justice  to  their  subjects,  and 
also  to  treat  them  with  what  Edmund  Burke  de 
scribes  as  "the  cold  neutrality  of  an  impartial 
judge."  A  number  of  the  sketches,  particularly 
of  the  presidents  in  our  own  time,  were  espe 
cially  prepared  for  this  work;  others  were  orig 
inally  written  for  "Appleton's  Cyclopaedia  of 
American  Biography."  In  some  instances  they 
have  been  revised  and  enlarged  for  the  present  vol 
umes.  These  seven-and-twenty  articles  contain  a 
complete  record  of  the  most  important  events  in  the 
nation's  history  from  the  inauguration  of  our  first 
president  to  the  close  of  1913,  a  period  of  more 
than  one  hundred  and  twenty-four  years,  and 
including  thirty-two  administrations.  The  well- 
known  writers  of  these  model  biographies  of  our 
chief  magistrates  are  not  responsible  for  the  brief 
notices  of  the  ladies  of  the  White  House,  for  the 

284476 


PREFACE 

sketches  of  other  persons  connected  with  the  fam 
ilies  of  the  presidents,  for  the  bibliographies  ac 
companying  their  monographs,  or  for  the  selec 
tion  of  the  many  illustrations,  which  it  is  be 
lieved  will  enhance  the  interest  and  value  of  the 
work.  These  have  been  added  by  the  editor. 
The  portraits  have  been  reproduced  from  the 
best  originals  obtainable,  and  the  interesting  se 
ries  of  facsimiles,  with  a  few  exceptions,  were 
taken  from  the  editor's  complete  collection  of  let 
ters  written  by  the  presidents,  concerning  some  of 
whom — such  as  Washington,  the  elder  Adams,  Jef 
ferson,  Lincoln,  and  Grant — it  may  safely  be  said, 
"upon  the  adamant  of  their  fame  the  stream  of 
time  beats  without  injury."  For  those  of  John 
Adams,  James  Monroe,  Andrew  Johnson,  and  Wil 
liam  McKinley  the  publishers  are  indebted  to  the 
courtesy  of  other  collectors,  as  those  four  exam 
ples  among  the  editor's  manuscript  letters  of  our 
chief  magistrates  were  not  well  adapted  for  use  in 
this  work. 

NEW  YORK,  October,  1913. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

By  Robert  C.  Winthrop       ...         1 

JOHN  ADAMS 

By  John  Fiske 61 

THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

By  James  Parton 109 

JAMES  MADISON 

By  John  Fiske 157 

JAMES  MONROE 

By  Daniel  C.  Oilman     ....     193 

JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS 

By  John  Fiske 217 

ANDREW  JACKSON 

By  John  Fiske      .  251 


LIST    OF    ILLUSTRATIONS 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

From  the   painting  by  Gilbert   Stuart  in  the  Boston  Athe 
naeum       Frontispiece 

Facing  Page 
FAC-SIMILE  OF  THE  LAST  PAGE  OF  LETTER  FROM 

GEORGE    WASHINGTON    TO     JAMES     MADISON.     30 

GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

From  the  painting,  1790,  by  John  Trumbull,  in  the  City  Hall, 

New  York 38 

GEORGE  WASHINGTON 

Bust  of  the  Statue  by  Houdon  in  the  Capitol,  Richmond,  Va.     48 

WASHINGTON'S  HOME  AT  MOUNT  VERNON   .   .  58 

JOHN  ADAMS 

From  the  painting  by  Gilbert  Stuart,  now  in  the  possession 

of    his    great-grandson 64 

HOUSES   AT    BRAINTREE,   MASS.,   IN    WHICH   JOHN 

ADAMS  AND  HIS  SON  WERE  BORN     ....     74 

FAC-SIMILE  LETTER  FROM  JOHN  ADAMS  TO  JUDGE 

WILLIAM  CRANCH 96 

THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

From   the   painting   by   Mather    Brown.     Owned    by   Henry 
Adams,   Washington,    D.    C 

MONTICELLO,   NEAR   CHARLOTTESVILLE,    VA.;   THE 

HOME  OF  THOMAS  JEFFERSON 
Now  owned  by  Hon.  Jefferson  M.  Levy,  New  York       .        .128 

FAC-SIMILE  LETTER  FROM  THOMAS  JEFFERSON  TO 

MRS.   MARGARET   HARRISON   SMITH         .        .        .144 

JAMES  MADISON 

From  the  painting  by  Gilbert  Stuart.    Owned  by  T.  Jefferson 

Coolidge 160 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

Facing  Page 
FAC-SIMILE    LETTER    FROM    JAMES    MADISON    TO 

MRS.  MARGARET   HARRISON  SMITH         .        .        .    178 

MONTPELIER,    PIEDMONT,    VA.,    THE    HOME    OF   JAMES 

MADISON 
Now   owned  by  Col.  William  Dupont 182 

JAMES  MONROE 

From  the  painting  by  John  Vanderlyn  in  the  City  Hall,  New 
York 196 

FAC-SIMILE  LETTER  FROM  JAMES  MONROE  TO  THE 

GENERAL  ASSEMBLY  OF  VIRGINIA    ....  206 

OAK   HILL,   NEAR  LEESBURG,   VA.,  THE   HOME    OF 

JAMES   MONROE 
Now  owned  by  Mr.  Henry  Fairfax 210 

JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS 

From  the  painting  by  Edward  Dalton  Marchant  in  the  N.  Y. 

Historical  Society  .  220 

FAC-SIMILE    LETTER   FROM   JOHN   QUINCY  ADAMS 

TO  CHARLES  FRANCIS  ADAMS 226 

HOUSE  AT  QUINCY,  MASS.,  IN  WHICH  THE  TWO 
PRESIDENTS,  JOHN  ADAMS  AND  JOHN  QUINCY 
ADAMS,  LIVED 242 

ANDREW  JACKSON 

From  the  painting  by  Thomas  Ball 254 

FAC-SIMILE   LETTER  FROM  ANDREW  JACKSON  TO 

JAMES  KNOX  POLK 274 

THE    HERMITAGE,   NEAR   NASHVILLE,   TENN.,  THE 

HOME  OF  ANDREW  JACKSON 304 

PORTRAITS  OF  THE  LADIES  OF  THE  WHITE  HOUSE 

FROM  1789  TO  183T       .....       End  of  Volume 


GEORGE   WASHINGTON 

BY 

ROBERT  C.  WINTHROP 


GEORGE   WASHINGTON 

GEORGE  WASHINGTON,,  first  president  of  the 
United  States,  born  at  Pope's  Creek,  near  Bridge's 
Creek,  Westmoreland  County,  Va.,  February  22, 
1732;  died  at  Mount  Vernon,  December  14,  1799. 
Of  his  English  ancestry  various  details  are  given  in 
more  than  one  formal  biography  of  him,  and  very 
recently  several  questions  of  his  genealogy  have 
been  satisfactorily  solved  by  Mr.  Henry  F.  Waters, 
Mr.  Moncure  D.  Conway,  and  Mr.  W.  C.  Ford, 
which  had  eluded  even  the  labors  of  the  late  Col. 
J.  L.  Chester.  It  is  perhaps  too  early  to  regard  his 
English  ancestry  as  beyond  all  further  question. 
At  all  events,  this  memoir  may  well  be  allowed  to 
begin  with  his  American  history. 

His  earliest  ancestor  in  this  country  was  John 
Washington,  who  had  resided  for  some  years  at 
South  Cave,  near  the  Humber,  in  the  East  Riding 
of  Yorkshire,  England,  and  who  came  over  to 
Virginia,  with  his  brother  Lawrence,  in  1657. 
Purchasing  lands  in  Westmoreland  County  and 
establishing  his  residence  at  Pope's  Creek,  not  far 
from  the  Potomac,  he  became,  in  due  course,  an 
extensive  planter,  a  county  magistrate,  and  a  mem- 

3 


4         LIVBS  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

ber  of  the  house  of  burgesses.  He  distinguished 
himself,  also,  as  colonel  of  the  Virginia  forces  in 
driving  off  a  band  of  Seneca  Indians  who  were 
ravaging  the  neighboring  settlements.  In  honor 
of  his  public  and  private  character,  the  parish  in 
which  he  resided  was  called  Washington.  In  this 
parish  his  grandson,  Augustine,  the  second  son  of 
Lawrence  Washington,  was  born  in  1694.  By  his 
first  wife  Augustine  had  four  children.  Two  of 
them  died  young,  but  two  sons,  Lawrence  and 
Augustine,  survived  their  mother,  who  died  in  1728. 
On  March  6,  1730,  the  father  was  again  married. 
His  second  wife  was  Mary  Ball,  and  George  was 
her  first  child. 

If  tradition  is  to  be  trusted,  few  sons  ever  had  a 
more  lovely  and  devoted  mother,  and  no  mother  a 
more  dutiful  and  affectionate  son.  Bereaved  of  her 
husband,  who  died  after  a  short  illness  in  1743, 
when  George  was  but  eleven  years  of  age,  and  with 
four  younger  children  to  be  cared  for,  she  dis 
charged  the  responsibilities  thus  sadly  devolved 
upon  her  with  scrupulous  fidelity  and  firmness.  To 
her  we  owe  the  precepts  and  example  that  governed 
George's  life.  The  excellent  maxims,  moral  and 
religious,  which  she  found  in  her  favorite  manual— 
"Sir  Matthew  Hale's  Contemplations"-  -  were  im 
pressed  on  his  memory  and  on  his  heart,  as  she  read 
them  aloud  to  her  children ;  and  that  little  volume, 
with  the  autograph  inscription  of  Mary  Washing- 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON  5 

ton,  was  among  the  cherished  treasures  of  his 
library  as  long  as  he  lived.  To  her,  too,  under  God, 
we  owe  especially  the  restraining  influence  and 
authority  that  held  him  back,  at  the  last  moment, 
as  we  shall  see,  from  embarking  on  a  line  of  life 
that  would  have  cut  him  off  from  the  great  career 
that  has  rendered  his  name  immortal. 

Well  did  Dr.  Sparks,  in  his  careful  and  excellent 
biography,  speak  of  "the  debt  owed  by  mankind  to 
the  mother  of  Washington."  A  pleasing  conjec 
tural  picture,  not  without  some  weight  of  testimony, 
has  been  adopted  by  Mr.  Lossing  in  his  "Mary  and 
Martha,"  representing  her  at  the  age  of  twenty- 
three.  She  delighted  in  saying  simply  that  "George 
had  always  been  a  good  son" ;  and  her  own  life  was 
fortunately  prolonged  until  she  had  seen  him  more 
than  fulfil  every  hope  of  her  heart.  On  his  way 
to  his  first  inauguration  as  president  of  the  United 
States  Washington  came  to  bid  his  mother  a  last 
farewell,  just  before  her  death. 

That  parting  scene,  however,  was  not  at  his  birth 
place.  The  primitive  Virginia  farm-house  in  which 
he  was  born  had  long  ceased  to  be  the  family  resi 
dence,  and  had  gradually  fallen  into  ruin.  The 
remains  of  a  large  kitchen-chimney  were  all  that 
could  be  identified  of  it  in  1878,  by  a  party  of  which 
Secretary  Evarts,  General  Sherman,  and  the  late 
Mr.  Charles  C.  Perkins,  of  Boston,  were  three,  who 
visited  the  spot  with  a  view  to  the  erection  of  a 


6        LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

memorial  under  the  authority  of  congress.  Not 
long  after  the  birth  that  has  rendered  this  spot 
forever  memorable,  Augustine  Washington  re 
moved  to  an  estate  in  Stafford  County,  on  the  east 
side  of  the  Rappahannock,  opposite  Fredericks- 
burg,  and  resided  there  with  his  family  during  the 
remaining  years  of  his  life.  That  was  the  scene  of 
George's  early  childhood.  There  he  first  went  to 
school,  in  an  "old-field"  school-house,  with  Hobby, 
the  sexton  of  the  parish,  for  his  first  master.  After 
his  father's  death,  however,  he  was  sent  back  to 
the  old  homestead  at  Pope's  Creek,  to  live  for  a 
while  with  his  elder  half-brother,  Augustine,  to 
whom  the  Westmoreland  estate  had  been  left,  and 
who,  on  his  marriage,  had  taken  it  for  his  residence. 
There  George  had  the  advantage  of  at  least  a  better 
school  than  Hobby's,  kept  by  a  Mr.  Williams.  But 
it  taught  him  nothing  except  reading,  writing  and 
arithmetic,  with  a  little  geometry  and  surveying. 
For  this  last  study  he  evinced  a  marked  preference. 
Many  of  his  copy-books  of  that  period  have  been 
preserved,  and  they  show  no  inconsiderable  pro 
ficiency  in  the  surveyor's  art,  even  before  he  finally 
left  school,  toward  the  close  of  his  sixteenth  year. 
One  of  those  manuscript  books,  however,  is  of 
a  miscellaneous  and  peculiarly  interesting  character, 
containing  carefully  prepared  forms  for  business 
papers ;  a  few  selections  or,  it  may  be,  original  com 
positions  in  rhyme;  and  a  series  of  "Rules  of  Be- 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON  7 

havior  in  Company  and  Conversation,"  most  of 
them  translated  from  a  French  Book  of  "Max- 
imes,"  discovered  by  Mr.  Conway,  of  which  the  last 
and  most  noteworthy  one,  not  in  the  French  series, 
and  which  he  may  have  added  himself,  must  never 
be  omitted  from  the  story  of  Washington's  boy 
hood:  "Labor  to  keep  alive  in  your  breast  that  little 
spark  of  celestial  fire,  Conscience/'  All  these 
schoolboy  manuscripts  bear  witness  alike  to  his 
extreme  care  in  cultivating  a  neat,  clear,  and  elegant 
handwriting,  and  his  name  is  sometimes  written 
almost  as  if  in  contemplation  of  the  great  instru 
ments  and  state  papers  to  which  it  was  destined  to 
be  the  attesting  signature. 

Meantime  he  was  training  himself  for  vigorous 
manhood  by  all  sorts  of  robust  exercise  and  athletic 
sports.  He  played  soldier,  sometimes,  with  his 
school-mates,  always  asserting  the  authority  of 
captain,  and  subjecting  the  little  company  to  a  rigid 
discipline.  Running,  leaping,  and  wrestling  were 
among  his  favorite  pastimes.  He  became  a  fearless 
rider,  too,  and  no  horse  is  said  to  have  been  too  fiery 
for  him.  "Above  all,"  as  Irving  well  says,  "his 
inherent  probity,  and  the  principles  of  justice  on 
which  he  regulated  his  conduct,  even  at  this  early 
period  of  his  life,  were  soon  appreciated  by  his 
school-mates;  he  was  referred  to  as  an  umpire  in 
their  disputes,  and  his  decisions  were  never  re 
versed."  A  crisis  in  Washington's  life  occurred 


8         LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

before  he  left  school.  His  eldest  half-brother, 
Lawrence,  had  already  been  an  officer  in  the  Eng 
lish  service,  and  was  at  the  siege  of  Carthagena 
under  Admiral  Vernon,  for  whom  he  formed  a 
great  regard,  and  whose  name  he  afterward  gave 
to  his  estate  on  the  Potomac.  Observing  George's 
military  propensities,  and  thinking  that  the  English 
navy  would  afford  him  the  most  promising  field 
for  future  distinction,  Lawrence  obtained  a  mid 
shipman's  warrant  for  him  in  1746,  when  he  was 
just  fourteen  years  old,  and  George  is  said  to  have 
been  on  the  point  of  embarking  on  this  English 
naval  service.  The  earnest  remonstrance  of  his 
mother  was  interposed,  and  the  project  reluctantly 
abandoned.  He  thereupon  resumed  his  studies,  and 
did  not  leave  school  till  the  autumn  before  his  six 
teenth  year.  Soon  afterward  he  went  to  reside  with 
his  brother  Lawrence,  who  had  married  a  Fairfax 
of  Belvoir,  and  had  established  himself  at  Mount 
Vernon. 

Washington's  education  was  now  finished,  so  far 
as  schools  and  schoolmasters  were  concerned,  and 
he  never  enjoyed  or  sought  the  advantages  of  a 
college.  Indeed,  only  a  month  after  he  was  sixteen 
he  entered  on  the  active  career  of  a  surveyor  of 
lands,  in  the  employment  of  William  Fairfax,  the 
father  of  his  brother's  wife,  and  the  manager  of 
the  great  estate  of  his  cousin,  Lord  Fairfax.  In 
this  work  he  voluntarily  subjected  himself  to  every 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON  9 

variety  of  hardship  and  personal  danger.  Those 
Alleghany  valleys  and  hills  were  then  a  wilderness, 
where  difficult  obstructions  were  to  be  overcome, 
severe  exposures  to  be  endured,  and  savage  tribes 
to  be  conciliated  or  encountered.  For  three  succes 
sive  years  he  persevered  undauntedly  in  this  occupa 
tion,  having  obtained  a  commission  from  the 
president  and  master  of  William  and  Mary  college 
as  a  public  surveyor  for  Culpeper  County,  which 
entitled  his  surveys  to  a  place  in  the  county  office, 
where  they  were  held  in  high  esteem  for  complete 
ness  and  accuracy.  During  these  three  years  he 
allowed  himself  but  little  relaxation,  yet  found 
time  in  the  winter  months  for  an  occasional  visit  to 
his  mother,  and  for  aiding  her  in  the  management 
of  her  affairs. 

And  now,  at  nineteen  years  of  age,  he  received 
an  appointment  as  adjutant-general,  with  the  rank 
of  major,  to  inspect  and  exercise  the  militia  in  one 
of  the  districts  into  which  Virginia  was  divided  in 
view  of  the  French  encroachments  and  the  Indian 
depredations  with  which  the  frontiers  were 
menaced.  Before  he  had  fairly  entered  on  this 
service,  however,  he  was  called  to  accompany  his 
brother  Lawrence  to  the  West  Indies,  on  a  voyage 
for  his  brother's  health,  and  was  absent  from  home 
for  more  than  four  months,  during  which  he  had 
a  severe  attack  of  small-pox.  His  brother  remained 
longer,  and  returned  at  last  only  to  die,  leaving 


10       LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

George  as  one  of  his  executors,  and  involving  him 
in  large  responsibilities  as  well  as  in  much  personal 
affliction.  Meantime  his  appointment  as  adjutant- 
general  was  renewed  by  Gov.  Dinwiddie,  and  he 
was  assigned  to  the  charge  of  one  of  the  grand 
military  divisions  of  the  colony.  A  wider  field  of 
service  was  thus  opened  to  Washington,  on  which 
he  entered  with  alacrity. 

War  between  France  and  England  was  now 
rapidly  approaching,  involving  a  conflict  for  the 
possession  of  a  large  part  of  the  American  conti 
nent.  French  posts  were  already  established  on 
the  banks  of  the  Ohio,  with  a  view  of  confining 
the  English  colonies  within  the  Alleghany  moun 
tains.  Gov.  Dinwiddie,  under  instructions  from 
the  British  ministry,  resolved  upon  sending  a 
commissioner  to  the  officer  commanding  the  French 
forces  to  inquire  by  what  authority  he  was  invading 
the  king's  dominions,  and  to  ascertain,  if  possible, 
his  further  designs.  Washington  was  selected  for 
this  delicate  and  dangerous  mission,  after  several 
others  had  declined  to  undertake  it.  He  accepted 
it  at  once,  and  toward  the  end  of  November,  1753, 
he  set  out  from  Williamsburg,  without  any  military 
escort,  on  a  journey  of  nearly  600  miles — a  great 
part  of  it  over  "lofty  and  rugged  mountains  and 
through 'the  heart  of  a  wilderness."  The  perilous 
incidents  of  this  expedition  cannot  be  recounted 
here.  His  marvellous  and  providential  escapes,  at 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON  11 

one  time  from  the  violence  of  the  savages,  at 
another  from  assassination  by  a  treacherous  guide, 
at  a  third  from  being  drowned  in  crossing  the 
Alleghany  river  on  a  raft,  have  been  described  in 
all  the  accounts  of  his  early  manhood,  substantially 
from  his  own  journal,  published  in  London  at  the 
time.  He  reached  Williamsburg  on  his  return  on 
January  16,  1754,  and  delivered  to  Gov.  Dinwiddie 
the  reply  of  the  French  commander  to  his  message 
of  inquiry.  No  more  signal  test  could  have  been 
afforded  of  Washington's  various  talents  and  char 
acteristics,  which  this  expedition  served  at  once  to 
display  and  to  develop.  "From  that  moment," 
says  his  biographer,  Irving,  "he  was  the  rising  hope 
of  Virginia." 

He  was  then  but  just  finishing  his  twenty-first 
year,  and  immediately  after  his  return  he  was 
appointed  to  the  chief  command  of  a  little  body  of 
troops  raised  for  meeting  immediate  exigencies; 
but  the  military  establishment  was  increased  as  soon 
as  the  governor  could  convene  the  legislature  of 
Virginia,  and  Washington  was  appointed  lieuten 
ant-colonel  of  a  regiment,  with  Joshua  Fry,  an 
accomplished  Oxford  scholar,  as  his  colonel.  Upon 
Washington  at  once  devolved  the  duty  of  going 
forward  with  such  companies  as  were  enlisted,  and 
the  sudden  death  of  Col.  Fry  soon  left  him  in  full 
command  of  the  expedition.  The  much-misrepre 
sented  skirmish  with  the  French  troops,  resulting 


12       LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

in  the  death  of  Jumonville,  was  followed,  on  July 
3,  1754,  by  the  battle  of  the  Great  Meadows,  where 
Washington  held  his  ground,  in  Fort  Necessity, 
from  eleven  in  the  morning  to  eight  at  night, 
against  a  great  superiority  of  numbers,  until  the 
French  requested  a  parley.  A  capitulation  ensued, 
in  every  way  honorable  to  Washington  as  it  was 
translated  and  read  to  him,  but  which  proved,  when 
printed,  to  contain  terms  in  the  French  language 
which  he  never  would  have  signed  or  admitted  had 
they  not  been  suppressed  or  softened  by  the  inter 
preter.* 

The  course  now  adopted  by  Gov.  Dinwiddie  in 
the  reorganization  of  the  Virginia  troops,  against 
which  Washington  remonstrated,  and  which  would 
have  reduced  him  to  an  inferior  grade,  led  at  once 
to  his  resignation,  and,  after  a  brief  visit  to  his 
mother,  he  retired  to  Mount  Vernon.  He  was  soon 
solicited  by  Gov.  Sharpe,  of  Maryland,  then  the 
commander-in-chief  of  the  English  forces,  to  re 
sume  his  station,  but  under  circumstances  and  upon 
conditions  incompatible  with  his  self-respect.  In 
declining  the  invitation  he  used  this  memorable 
language:  "I  shall  have  the  consolation  of  know 
ing  that  I  have  opened  the  way,  when  the  smallness 
of  our  numbers  exposed  us  to  the  attacks  of  a 
superior  enemy;  and  that  I  have  had  the  thanks 

*  See  note  at  end  of  chapter  xii.,  vol.  i.,  of  living's  "Life  of  Wash 
ington." 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON  13 

of  my  country  for  the  services  I  have  rendered." 
But  now  Gen.  Braddock  was  sent  over  from  Eng 
land  with  two  regiments  of  regulars,  and  Wash 
ington  did  not  hesitate  to  accept  an  appointment 
on  his  staff  as  a  volunteer  aide-de-camp.  The 
prudent  counsels  that  he  gave  Braddock  before  he 
set  out  on  his  ill-fated  expedition,  and  often 
repeated  along  the  road,  were  not  followed;  but 
Washington,  notwithstanding  a  violent  attack  of 
fever,  was  with  him  on  the  bloody  field  of  the 
Monongahela,  behaving,  as  his  fellow  aide-de-camp, 
Col.  Orne,  testified,  "with  the  greatest  courage  and 
resolution,"  witnessing  at  last  Braddock's  defeat 
and  death,  and  being  the  only  mounted  officer  not 
killed  or  disabled.  "By  the  all-powerful  dispen 
sations  of  Providence,"  wrote  he  to  his  brother,  "I 
have  been  protected  beyond  all  human  probability 
or  expectation;  for  I  had  four  bullets  through  my 
coat,  and  two  horses  shot  under  me,  yet  I  escaped 
unhurt,  although  death  was  levelling  my  compan 
ions  on  every  side."  It  fell  to  him  by  a  striking 
coincidence — the  chaplain  being  wounded — to  read 
the  funeral  service  at  the  burial  of  Braddock  at 
the  Great  Meadows,  the  scene  of  his  own  capitula 
tion  the  year  before.  In  a  sermon  to  one  of  the 
companies  organized  under  the  impulse  of  Brad- 
dock's  defeat,  and  in  view  of  the  impending 
dangers  of  the  country,  the  Rev.  Samuel  Davies, 
an  eloquent  and  accomplished  preacher,  who,  in 


14       LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

1759,  succeeded  Jonathan  Edwards  as  president  of 
Princeton  college,  after  praising  the  zeal  and 
courage  of  the  Virginia  troops,  added  these 
prophetic  words:  "As  a  remarkable  instance  of 
this,  I  may  point  out  to  the  public  that  heroic 
youth,  Col.  Washington,  whom  I  cannot  but  hope 
Providence  has  hitherto  preserved  in  so  signal  a 
manner  for  some  important  service  to  his  country." 
A  force  of  2,000  men  having  now  been  ordered 
to  be  raised  by  the  Virginia  assembly,  Washington 
was  appointed  to  the  chief  command  and  estab 
lished  his  headquarters  at  Winchester.  He  broke 
away  from  the  perplexing  cares  of  this  place  in 
February,  1756,  to  make  a  hurried  visit  to  Gov. 
Shirley  in  Boston,  where  he  settled  successfully 
with  him,  then  the  commander-in-chief  of  the  Eng 
lish  forces  on  this  continent,  a  vexatious  question 
of  precedence  between  the  provincial  officers  and 
those  appointed  by  the  crown.  On  his  return  he 
devoted  himself  to  measures  for  the  security  of  the 
frontier.  In  the  course  of  the  following  year  he 
was  again  the  subject  of  a  violent  fever,  which 
prostrated  him  for  several  months.  "My  consti 
tution,"  he  wrote  to  a  friend,  "is  much  impaired, 
and  nothing  can  retrieve  it  but  the  greatest  care 
and  the  most  circumspect  course  of  life."  Under 
these  circumstances  he  seriously  contemplated  again 
resigning  his  command  and  retiring  from  all 
further  public  business.  But  his  favorite  measure, 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON  15 

the  reduction  of  Fort  Duquesne,  was  at  length  to 
be  undertaken,  and,  after  much  disappointment 
and  delay,  Washington,  on  November  25,  1758, 
was  privileged  to  "march  in  and  plant  the  British 
flag  on  the  yet  smoking  ruins"  of  that  fort— 
henceforth  to  be  known  as  Fort  Pitt,  in  honor  of 
the  great  minister  of  England,  afterward  Lord 
Chatham. 

Meantime  Washington  had  chanced  to  meet  on 
his  way  to  Williamsburg,  at  the  house  of  a  hospi 
table  Virginian  with  whom  he  dined,  a  charming 
widow,  who  at  once  won  his  heart.  Most  happily 
he  soon  succeeded  in  winning  hers  also,  and  on 
January  6,  1759,  she  became  his  wife.  Martha 
Custis,  daughter  of  John  Dandridge  and  widow  of 
John  Parke  Custis,  was  henceforth  to  be  known 
in  history  as  Martha  Washington.  He  had  now 
finally  resigned  his  commission  as  a  colonial  officer, 
and  was  preparing  to  enjoy  something  of  the  retire 
ment  of  private  life.  But  while  he  was  still  absent 
on  his  last  campaign  he  had  been  chosen  a  delegate 
to  the  Virginia  house  of  burgesses,  and  he  had 
hardly  established  himself  at  Mount  Vernon,  a  few 
months  after  his  marriage,  when  he  was  summoned 
to  attend  a  session  of  that  body  at  Williamsburg. 
He  was  not  allowed,  however,  to  enter  unobserved 
on  his  civil  career.  No  sooner  did  he  make  his 
appearance  than  the  Speaker,  agreeably  to  a  previ 
ous  vote  of  the  house,  presented  their  thanks  to 


16       LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

him,  in  the  name  of  the  colony,  for  the  distinguished 
military  service  he  had  rendered  to  his  country, 
accompanying  the  vote  of  thanks  with  expressions 
of  compliment  and  praise  which  greatly  embar 
rassed  him.  He  attempted  to  make  his  acknowl 
edgments,  but  stammered  and  trembled  and  "could 
not  give  distinct  utterance  to  a  single  syllable." 
"Sit  down,  Mr.  Washington,"  said  the  Speaker, 
with  infinite  address;  "your  modesty  equals  your 
valor,  and  that  surpasses  the  power  of  any  language 
I  possess." 

Fourteen  or  fifteen  years  more  elapsed  before 
the   great   struggle    for   American   independence 
began,  and  during  all  this  time  he  continued  to  be 
a  member  of  the  house  of  burgesses.     He  was 
punctual  in  his  attendance  at  all  their  sessions,  which 
were  commonly  at  least  two  in  a  year,  and  took  an 
earnest  interest  in  all  that  was  said  and  done,  but 
"it  is  not  known,"  says  Sparks,  "that  he  ever  made 
a  set  speech  or  entered  into  a  stormy  debate."    He 
had  a  passion  for  agricultural  pursuits.     He  de 
lighted  in  his  quiet  rural  life  at  Mount  Vernon 
with  his  wife  and  her  children— he  had  none  of  his 
own — finding  ample  occupation  in  the  management 
of  his  farms,  and  abundant  enjoyment  in  hunting 
and  fishing  with  the  genial  friends  and  relatives 
in  his  neighborhood.    He  was  a  vestryman  of  two 
parishes,  regular  in  his  attendance  at  one  or  the 
other  of  the  parochial  churches,  at  Alexandria  or 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON  17 

at  Pohick,  and  both  he  and  his  wife  were  com 
municants.  Meantime  he  was  always  at  the  service 
of  his  friends  or  the  community  for  any  aid  or 
counsel  that  he  could  render  them.  He  was  often 
called  on  to  be  an  arbitrator,  and  his  judgment 
and  impartiality  were  never  questioned.  As  a  com 
missioner  for  settling  the  military  accounts  of  the 
colony,  after  the  treaty  of  peace  of  1763,  he  spared 
himself  no  labor  in  the  execution  of  a  most  arduous 
and  complicated  task.  In  a  word,  he  was  a  good 
citizen,  an  exemplary  Christian,  a  devoted  father, 
a  kind  master  to  the  slaves  who  had  come  to  him  by 
inheritance  or  marriage,  and  was  respected  and 
beloved  by  all. 

At  length,  at  forty-three  years  of  age,  he  was 
called  upon  to  begin  a  career  that  closed  only  with 
his  life,  during  which  he  held  the  highest  and  most 
responsible  positions  in  war  and  in  peace,  and  ren 
dered  inestimable  services  to  his  country  and  to 
mankind.  To  follow  that  career  in  detail  would 
require  nothing  less  than  a  history  of  the  United 
States  for  the  next  five-and-twenty  years.  Wash 
ington  was  naturally  of  a  cautious  and  conservative 
cast,  and  by  no  means  disposed  for  a  rupture  with 
the  mother  country,  if  it  could  be  avoided  without 
the  sacrifice  of  rights  and  principles.  But  as  the 
various  stages  of  British  aggression  succeeded  each 
other,  beginning  with  the  stamp-act,  the  repeal  of 
which  he  hailed  with  delight,  and  followed  by  the 


18       LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

tea  tax  and  the  Boston  port  bill,  he  became  keenly 
alive  to  the  danger  of  submission,  and  was  ready 
to  unite  in  measures  of  remonstrance,  opposition, 
and  ultimately  of  resistance.  When  he  heard  at 
Williamsburg,  in  August,  1773,  of  the  sufferings 
resulting  from  the  port  bill,  he  is  said  to  have 
exclaimed,  impulsively:  "I  will  raise  a  thousand 
men,  subsist  them  at  my  own  expense,  and  march 
with  them,  at  their  head,  for  the  relief  of  Boston." 
He  little  dreamed  at  that  moment  that  within  two 
years  he  was  destined  to  be  hailed  as  the  deliverer 
of  Boston  from  British  occupation. 

Washington  accepted  an  election  as  a  delegate 
to  the  first  Continental  congress  in  1774,  and 
went  to  the  meeting  at  Philadelphia  in  Septem 
ber  of  that  year,  in  company  with  Patrick  Henry 
and  Edmund  Pendleton,  who  called  for  him  at 
Mount  Vernon  on  horseback.  That  congress  sat 
in  Carpenter's  Hall  with  closed  doors,  but  the 
great  papers  that  it  prepared  and  issued  form  a 
proud  part  of  American  history.  Those  were 
the  papers  and  that  the  congress  of  which  Chatham 
in  the  house  of  lords,  in  his  memorable  speech 
on  the  removal  of  troops  from  Boston,  January 
20,  1775,  said:  "When  your  lordships  look  at  the 
papers  transmitted  to  us  from  America,  when 
you  consider  their  decency,  firmness,  and  wisdom, 
you  cannot  but  respect  their  cause,  and  wish  to 
make  it  your  own.  For  myself,  I  must  declare 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON  19 

and  avow  that  in  all  my  reading  and  observation 
—and    it   has    been   my    favorite    study — I    have 
read  Thucydides,  and  have  studied  and  admired 
the  master  states  of  the  world — that  for  solidity  of 
reasoning,  force  of  sagacity,  and  wisdom  of  con 
clusion,    under    such    a   complication    of    difficult 
circumstances,  no  nation  or  body  of  men  can  stand 
in  preference  to  the  general  congress  at  Philadel 
phia."     The   precise  part  taken  by  Washington 
within  the  closed  doors  of  Carpenter's  Hall  is  no 
where  recorded,  but  the  testimony  of  one  of  its 
most  distinguished  members  cannot  be  forgotten. 
When  Patrick  Henry  returned  home   from   the 
meeting,  and  was  asked  whom  he  considered  the 
greatest  man  in  that  congress,  he  replied:    "If  you 
speak  of  eloquence,  Mr.  Rutledge,  of  South  Caro 
lina,  is  by  far  the  greatest  orator ;  but  if  you  speak 
of  solid  information  and  sound  judgment,  Col. 
Washington  is  unquestionably  the  greatest  man  on 
that  floor."    It  is  an  interesting  tradition  that,  dur 
ing  the  prayers  with  which  Dr.  Duche  opened  that 
meeting  at  Carpenter's  Hall  on  September  5,  1774, 
while  most  of  the  other  members  were  standing, 
Washington  was  kneeling. 

He  was  again  a  delegate  to  the  Continental  con 
gress  (the  second)  that  assembled  at  Philadelphia 
on  May  10,  1775,  by  which,  on  the  15th  of  June, 
on  the  motion  of  Thomas  Johnson,  a  delegate  of 
Maryland,  at  the  earnest  instigation  of  John 


20      LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

Adams,   of  Massachusetts,   he  was  unanimously 
elected  commander-in-chief  of  all  the  Continental 
forces  raised,  or  to  be  raised,  for  the  defence  of 
American  liberty.  On  the  next  morning  he  accepted 
the  appointment  and  expressed  his  deep  and  grate 
ful  sense  of  the  high  honor  conferred  upon  him, 
"but,"  added  he,  "lest  some  unlucky  event  should 
happen,  unfavorable  to  my  reputation,  I  beg  it 
may  be  remembered  by  every  gentleman  in  the 
room  that  I  this  day  declare,  with  the  utmost  sin 
cerity,  that  I  do  not  think  myself  equal  to  the 
command  I  am  honored  with."     "As  to  pay,"  he 
continued,  "I  beg  leave  to  assure  the  congress  that, 
as  no  pecuniary  consideration  could  have  tempted 
me  to  accept  this  arduous  employment,  at  the  ex 
pense  of  my  domestic  ease  and  happiness,  I  do  not 
wish  to  make  any  profit  of  it.    I  will  keep  an  exact 
account  of  my  expenses.    Those  I  doubt  not  they 
will  discharge,  and  that  is  all  I  desire."    "You  may 
believe  me,"  he  wrote  to  his  wife  at  once,  "when 
I  assure  you,  in  the  most  solemn  manner,  that  so 
far  from  seeking  this  appointment,  I  have  used 
every  endeavor  in  my  power  to  avoid  it,  not  only 
from  my  unwillingness  to  part  with  you  and  the 
family,  but  from  a  consciousness  of  its  being  a 
trust  too  great  for  my  capacity." 

Washington's  commission  was  agreed  to  by  con 
gress  on  June  17,  and  on  the  21st  he  set  out 
from  Philadelphia  on  horseback  to  take  command 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON  21 

of  the  American  army  encamped  around  Boston, 
of  which  place  the  British  forces  were  in  possession. 
The  tidings  of  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill  reached 
him  at  New  York  on  the  25th,  and  the  next  day  he 
was  in  the  saddle  again  on  his  way  to  Cambridge. 
He  arrived  there  on  July  2,  and  established  his 
headquarters  in  the  old  Vassall  (afterward  Craigie) 
mansion,  which  has  recently  been  known  as  the 
residence  of  the  poet  Longfellow.     On  July  3 
he  took  formal  command  of  the  army,  drawing  his 
sword  under  an  ancient  elm,  which  has  of  late  years 
been  suitably  inscribed.    The  American  army  num 
bered  about  17,000  men,  but  only  14,500  were  fit 
for  duty.    Coming  hastily  from  different  colonies, 
they  were  without  supplies  of  tents  or  clothing,  and 
there  was  not  ammunition  enough  for  nine  car 
tridges  to  a  man.    Washington's  work  in  combining 
and  organizing  this  mass  of  raw  troops  was  most 
embarrassing   and   arduous.      But   he   persevered 
untiringly,   and   after  a  siege   of   eight  months 
succeeded  in  driving  the  British  from  Boston  on 
March  17,  1776.    For  this  grand  exploit  congress 
awarded  him  a  splendid  gold  medal,  which  bore  an 
admirable  likeness  of  him  on  one  side,  and  on  the 
other  side  the  inscription  "Hostibus  primo  fugatis 
Bostonium  recuperatum."    Copies  of  this  medal  in 
silver  and  bronze  have  been  multiplied,  but  the 
original  gold  medal  has  found  a  fit  place,  within  a 
few  years  past,  in  the  Boston  Public  Library. 


22       LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

The  way  was  now  opened,  and  the  scene  of  the 
war  was  soon  transferred  to  other  parts  of  the 
country.  The  day  after  the  evacuation  of  Boston, 
five  regiments,  with  a  battalion  of  riflemen  and  two 
companies  of  artillery,  were  sent  to  New  York. 
But,  as  the  British  fleet  was  still  in  Nantasket  road, 
Washington  did  not  venture  to  move  more  of  his 
army,  or  to  go  away  himself,  until  the  risk  of  a 
return  was  over.  On  April  13  he  reached  New 
York,  and  was  soon  summoned  to  Philadelphia  for 
a  conference  with  congress.  On  his  return  to  New 
York,  while  he  was  anxiously  awaiting  an  attack 
by  the  British  forces,  the  Declaration  of  Indepen 
dence,  signed  on  July  4,  was  transmitted  to  him. 
The  regiments  were  forthwith  paraded,  and  the 
Declaration  was  read  at  the  head  of  the  army. 
"The  General  hopes,"  said  he  in  the  orders  of  the 
day,  "that  this  important  event  will  serve  as  a  fresh 
incentive  to  every  officer  and  soldier  to  act  with 
fidelity  and  courage,  as  knowing  that  now  the  peace 
and  safety  of  his  country  depend,  under  God,  solely 
on  the  success  of  our  arms."  He  hailed  the  Declar 
ation  with  delight,  and  had  written  to  his  brother, 
from  Philadelphia,  that  he  was  rejoiced  at  "the 
noble  act"  of  the  Virginia  convention,  recommend 
ing  that  such  a  declaration  should  be  adopted.  But 
his  little  army,  according  to  the  returns  of  August 
5  following,  hardly  numbered  more  than  20,000 
men,  of  whom  six  or  seven  thousand  were  sick  or 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON  23 

on  furlough  or  otherwise  absent,  while  the  British 
forces  were  at  least  24,000,  supported  by  a  large 
and  thoroughly  equipped  fleet. 

The  battle  of  Long  Island  soon  followed,  with 
disastrous  results  to  the  Americans,  and  the  British 
took  possession  of  New  York.  Other  reverses  were 
not  long  delayed,  and  the  strategy  of  Washington 
found  its  exhibition  only  in  his  skilful  retreat  from 
Long  Island  and  through  the  Jerseys.  But  he  was 
not  disheartened,  nor  his  confidence  in  ultimate  suc 
cess  impaired.  When  asked  what  was  to  be  done 
if  Philadelphia  were  taken,  he  replied:  "We  will 
retreat  beyond  the  Susquehanna,  and  thence,  if 
necessary,  to  the  Alleghany  mountains."  His  mas 
terly  movements  on  the  Delaware  were  now 
witnessed,  which  Frederick  the  Great  is  said  to 
have  declared  "the  most  brilliant  achievements 
recorded  in  military  annals."  "Many  years  later," 
Mr.  Lossing  informs  us  in  his  interesting  volume 
on  Mount  Vernon  and  its  associations,  "the  great 
Frederick  sent  him  a  portrait  of  himself,  accom 
panied  by  the  remarkable  words:  'From  the 
oldest  general  in  Europe  to  the  greatest  general 
in  the  world!' '  Meantime  he  had  a  vast  work  to 
accomplish  with  entirely  inadequate  means.  But 
he  went  along  with  heroic  fortitude,  unswerving 
constancy,  and  unsparing  self-devotion,  through  all 
the  trials  and  sufferings  of  Monmouth  and  Brandy- 
wine  and  Germantown  and  Valley  Forge,  until  the 


24      LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

grand  consummation  was  at  last  reached  at  York- 
town,  on  October  19,  1781.  There,  with  the  aid 
of  our  generous  and  gallant  allies,  he  achieved  the 
crowning  victory  of  independence  on  the  soil  of  his 
beloved  Virginia. 

The  details  of  this  protracted  contest  must  be 
left  to  history,  as  well  as  the  infamous  cabal  for 
impeaching  his  ability  and  depriving  him  of  his 
command  and  the  still  more  infamous  treason  of 
Arnold,  in  September,  1780.  Standing  on  the  field 
of  Yorktown,  to  receive  the  surrender  of  Lord 
Cornwallis  and  the  British  army,  Washington  was 
at  length  rewarded  for  all  the  labors  and  sacrifices 
and  disappointments  he  had  so  bravely  endured 
since  his  first  great  victory  in  expelling  the  British 
from  Boston  nearly  seven  years  before.  Massa 
chusetts  and  Virginia  were  thus  the  scenes  of  his 
proudest  successes,  as  they  had  been  foremost  in 
bringing  to  a  test  the  great  issue  of  American 
independence  and  American  liberty.  The  glorious 
consummation  was  at  last  accomplished.  But  two 
years  more  were  to  elapse  before  the  treaty  of  peace 
was  signed  and  the  war  with  England  ended;  and 
during  that  period  Washington  was  to  give  most 
signal  illustration  of  his  disinterested  patriotism 
and  of  his  political  wisdom  and  foresight. 

Discontent  had  for  some  time  been  manifested 
by  officers  and  soldiers  alike,  owing  to  arrearages 
of  pay,  and  they  were  naturally  increased  by  the 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON  25 

apprehension  that  the  army  would  now  be  dis 
banded  without  proper  provision  being  made  by 
congress  for  meeting  the  just  claims  of  the  troops. 
Not  a  few  of  the  officers  began  to  distrust  the 
efficiency  of  the  government  and  of  all  republican 
institutions.  One  of  them,  "a  colonel  of  the  army, 
of  a  highly  respectable  character  and  somewhat 
advanced  in  life,"  whose  name  is  given  by  Irving 
as  Lewis  Nicola,  was  put  forward  to  communicate 
these  sentiments  to  Washington,  and  he  even  dared 
to  suggest  for  him  the  title  of  King.  Washington's 
reply,  dated  Newburgh,  May  22,  1782,  expressed 
the  indignation  and  "abhorrence"  with  which  he  had 
received  such  a  suggestion,  and  rebuked  the  writer 
with  severity.  "I  am  at  a  loss  to  conceive,"  wrote 
he,  "what  part  of  my  conduct  could  have  given 
encouragement  to  an  address  which  to  me  seems 
big  with  the  greatest  mischiefs  that  can  befall  my 
country.  If  I  am  not  deceived  in  the  knowledge 
of  myself,  you  could  not  have  found  a  person  to 
whom  your  schemes  are  more  disagreeable.  .  .  . 
Let  me  conjure  you,  then,  if  you  have  any  regard 
for  your  country,  concern  for  yourself  or  posterity, 
or  respect  for  me,  to  banish  these  thoughts  from 
your  mind,  and  never  communicate,  from  yourself 
or  any  one  else,  a  sentiment  of  the  like  nature." 
Nothing  more  was  ever  heard  of  making  Wash 
ington  a  king.  He  had  sufficiently  shown  his  scorn 
for  such  an  overture. 


26      LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

The  apprehensions  of  the  army,  however,  were 
by  no  means  quieted.  A  memorial  on  the  subject 
of  their  pay  was  prepared  and  transmitted  to  con 
gress  in  December,  1782,  but  the  resolutions  that 
congress  adopted  did  not  satisfy  their  expectations. 
A  meeting  of  officers  was  arranged,  and  anonymous 
addresses,  commonly  known  as  the  Newburgh  ad 
dresses,  were  issued,  to  rouse  the  army  to  resent 
ment.  Washington  insisted  on  attending  the 
meeting,  and  delivered  an  impressive  address.  Gen. 
Gates  was  in  the  chair,  and  Washington  began 
by  apologizing  for  having  come.  After  reading 
the  first  paragraph  of  what  he  had  prepared,  he 
begged  the  indulgence  of  those  present  while  he 
paused  to  put  on  his  spectacles,  saying,  casually, 
but  most  touchingly,  that  "he  had  grown  gray  in 
the  service  of  his  country,  and  now  found  himself 
growing  blind."  He  then  proceeded  to  read  a  most 
forcible  and  noble  paper,  in  which,  after  acknowl 
edging  the  just  claims  of  the  army  on  the  govern 
ment  and  assuring  them  that  those  claims  would 
not  be  disregarded,  he  conjured  them  "to  express 
their  utmost  horror  and  detestation  of  the  man  who 
wishes,  under  any  specious  pretences,  to  overturn 
the  liberties  of  our  country,  and  who  wickedly  at 
tempts  to  open  the  floodgates  of  civil  discord  and 
deluge  our  rising  empire  in  blood." 

The  original  autograph  of  this  ever-memorable 
address,  just  as  it  came  from  Washington's  own 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON  27 

pen,  is  in  the  archives  of  the  Massachusetts  His 
torical  Society,  and  a  lithographed  copy  was  pub 
lished  by  them,  together  with  the  letters  of  eye 
witnesses  to  the  scene,  as  a  contribution  to  the 
centennial  papers  of  1876.  Washington  retired  at 
once  from  the  meeting,  but  resolutions  were  forth 
with  unanimously  adopted,  on  motion  of  Gen. 
Knox  seconded  by  Gen.  Putnam,  reciprocating 
all  his  affectionate  expressions,  and  concurring 
entirely  in  the  policy  he  had  proposed.  "Every 
doubt  was  dispelled,"  says  Maj.  Shaw  in  his 
journal,  "and  the  tide  of  patriotism  rolled  again 
in  its  wonted  course."  The  treaty  of  peace  was 
signed  in  Paris  on  January  20,  1783.  On  April 
17  following,  a  proclamation  by  congress  was 
received  by  Washington  for  the  cessation  of  hos 
tilities.  On  April  19,  the  anniversary  of  the  shed 
ding  of  the  first  blood  at  Lexington,  which  com 
pleted  the  eighth  year  of  the  war,  the  cessation  was 
proclaimed  at  the  head  of  every  regiment  of  the 
army,  after  which,  said  Washington's  general 
orders,  "the  chaplains  of  the  several  brigades  will 
render  thanks  to  Almighty  God  for  all  his  mercies, 
particularly  for  his  overruling  the  wrath  of  man 
to  his  own  glory,  and  causing  the  rage  of  war  to 
cease  among  the  nations." 

On  the  following  8th  of  June,  in  view  of  the 
dissolution  of  the  army,  Washington  addressed  a 
letter  to  the  governors  of  the  several  states — a  letter 


28       LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

full  of  golden  maxims  and  consummate  wisdom. 
"The  great  object,"  he  began,  "for  which  I  had 
the  honor  to  hold  an  appointment  in  the  service  of 
my  country  being  accomplished,  I  am  now  prepar 
ing  to  return  to  that  domestic  retirement  which,  it 
is  well  known,  I  left  with  the  greatest  reluctance 
—a  retirement  for  which  I  have  never  ceased  to 
sigh  through  a  long  and  painful  absence,  and  in 
which,  remote  from  the  noise  and  trouble  of  the 
world,  I  meditate  to  pass  the  remainder  of  my  life 
in  a  state  of  undisturbed  repose."  Then,  after 
remarking  that  "this  is  the  favorable  moment  for 
giving  such  a  tone  to  the  Federal  government  as 
will  enable  it  to  answer  the  ends  of  its  institution," 
he  proceeded  to  set  forth  and  enlarge  upon  the  four 
things  that  he  conceived  to  be  essential  to  the  well- 
being,  or  even  the  existence,  of  the  United  States 
as  an  independent  power:  "First,  an  indissoluble 
union  of  the  states  under  one  federal  head;  second, 
a  sacred  regard  to  public  justice;  third,  the  adop 
tion  of  a  proper  peace  establishment;  and,  fourth, 
the  prevalence  of  that  pacific  and  friendly  disposi 
tion  among  the  people  of  the  United  States  which 
will  induce  them  to  forget  their  local  prejudices 
and  policies,  to  make  those  mutual  concessions 
which  are  requisite  to  the  general  prosperity,  and, 
in  some  instances,  to  sacrifice  their  individual  advan 
tages  to  the  interest  of  the  community.  These  are 
the  pillars,"  said  Washington,  "on  which  the  glori- 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON  29 

ous  fabric  of  our  independency  and  national  char 
acter  must  rest." 

Washington  took  final  leave  of  the  army  in 
general  orders  of  November  2,  in  accordance  with 
a  proclamation  by  congress  of  October  18.  He 
accompanied  Gov.  Clinton  in  a  formal  entry  into 
New  York,  after  its  evacuation  by  the  British,  on 
November  25.  On  December  4,  after  taking  affec 
tionate  leave  of  his  principal  officers  at  Fraunce's 
tavern,  he  set  off  for  Annapolis,  and  there,  on 
December  23,  1783,  he  presented  himself  to  "the 
United  States  in  congress  assembled,"  and  resigned 
the  commission  that  he  had  received  on  June  17, 
1775.  "Having  now  finished,"  said  he,  "the  work 
assigned  me,  I  retire  from  the  great  theatre  of 
action,  and,  bidding  an  affectionate  farewell  to  this 
august  body,  under  whose  orders  I  have  long  acted, 
I  here  offer  my  commission,  and  take  my  leave  of 
all  the  employments  of  public  life."  "You  retire," 
replied  the  president  of  congress,  "from  the  theatre 
of  action  with  the  blessings  of  your  fellow-citizens ; 
but  the  glory  of  your  virtues  will  not  terminate  with 
your  military  command :  it  will  continue  to  animate 
remotest  ages."  The  very  next  morning,  as  we 
are  informed  by  Irving,  Washington  departed 
from  Annapolis,  and  "hastened  to  his  beloved 
Mount  Vernon,  where  he  arrived  the  same  day,  on 
Christmas  eve,  in  a  frame  of  mind  suited  to  enjoy 
the  sacred  and  genial  festival." 


30      LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

Once  more,  at  the  close  of  the  fifty-second  year 
of  his  age,  Washington  was  permitted  to  resume 
his  favorite  occupations  of  a  farmer  and  planter, 
and  to  devote  himself  personally  to  his  crops  and 
cattle.  Indeed,  throughout  his  whole  military  cam 
paign,  he  had  kept  himself  informed  of  what  was 
going  on  in  the  way  of  agriculture  at  Mount  Ver- 
non,  and  had  given  careful  directions  as  to  the 
cultivation  of  his  lands.  His  correspondence  now 
engrossed  not  a  little  of  his  time,  and  he  was 
frequently  cheered  by  the  visits  of  his  friends. 
Lafayette  was  among  his  most  welcome  guests, 
and  passed  a  fortnight  with  him,  to  his  great  de 
light.  Afterward  Washington  made  a  visit  to  his 
lands  on  the  Kanawha  and  Ohio  rivers,  travelling 
on  horseback,  with  his  friend  and  physician,  Dr. 
Craik,  nearly  seven  hundred  miles,  through  a  wild, 
mountainous  country,  and  devising  schemes  of 
internal  navigation  for  the  advantage  of  Virginia 
and  Maryland.  His  passion  for  hunting,  also,  was 
revived,  and  Lafayette  and  others  of  the  French 
officers  sent  him  out  fine  hounds  from  their  kennels. 

But  the  condition  of  his  country  was  never 
absent  from  his  thoughts,  and  the  insufficiency  of 
the  existing  confederation  weighed  heavily  on  his 
mind.  In  one  of  his  letters  he  writes:  "The  con 
federation  appears  to  me  little  more  than  a  shadow 
without  the  substance,  and  congress  a  migratory 
body."  In  another  letter  he  says:  "I  have  ever 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON  31 

been  a  friend  to  adequate  powers  in  congress,  with 
out  which  it  is  evident  to  me  we  shall  never  establish 
a  national  character.  .  .  .  We  are  either  a  united 
people  under  one  head  and  for  federal  purposes, 
or  we  are  thirteen  independent  sovereignties,  eter 
nally  counteracting  each  other."  In  another  letter, 
to  John  Jay,  he  uses  still  more  emphatic  language : 
"I  do  not  conceive  we  can  exist  long  as  a  nation 
without  lodging  somewhere  a  power  which  will 
pervade  the  whole  Union  in  as  energetic  a  manner 
as  the  authority  of  the  state  governments  extends 
over  the  several  states.  .  .  .  Retired  as  I  am  from 
the  world,  I  frankly  acknowledge  I  can  not  feel 
myself  an  unconcerned  spectator.  Yet,  having 
happily  assisted  in  bringing  the  ship  into  port,  and 
having  been  fairly  discharged,  it  is  not  my  business 
to  embark  again  on  the  sea  of  troubles." 

Meantime  the  insurrection  in  Massachusetts, 
commonly  known  as  "Shays's  rebellion,"  added 
greatly  to  his  anxiety  and  even  anguish  of  mind. 
In  a  letter  to  Madison  of  November  6,  1786,  he 
exclaimed :  "No  morn  ever  dawned  more  favorably 
than  ours  did,  and  no  day  was  ever  more  clouded 
than  the  present.  .  .  .  We  are  fast  verging  to 
anarchy  and  confusion."  Soon  afterward  he 
poured  out  the  bitterness  of  his  soul  to  his  old  aide- 
de-camp,  Gen.  Humphreys,  in  still  stronger  terms : 
"What,  gracious  God!  is  man,  that  there  should  be 
such  inconsistency  and  perfidiousness  in  his  con- 


32       LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

duct?  It  was  but  the  other  day  that  we  were 
shedding  our  blood  to  obtain  the  constitutions  under 
which  we  now  live — constitutions  of  our  own 
choice  and  making — and  now  we  are  unsheathing 
the  sword  to  overturn  them."  He  was  thus  in  full 
sympathy  with  the  efforts  of  his  friends  to  confer 
new  and  greater  powers  on  the  Federal  Govern 
ment,  and  he  yielded  to  their  earnest  solicitations 
in  consenting  to  be  named  at  the  head  of  the  Vir 
ginia  delegates  to  the  convention  in  Philadelphia 
on  May  14, 1787.  Of  that  ever-memorable  conven 
tion  he  was  unanimously  elected  president,  and  on 
the  following  17th  of  September  he  had  the 
supreme  satisfaction  of  addressing  a  letter  to  con 
gress  announcing  the  adoption  of  the  constitution 
of  the  United  States,  which  had  been  signed  on  that 
day.  "In  all  our  deliberations  on  this  subject,"  he 
said  in  that  letter,  "we  kept  steadily  in  our  view  that 
which  appears  to  us  the  greatest  interest  of  every 
true  American — the  consolidation  of  our  Union— 
in  which  is  involved  our  prosperity,  felicity,  safety, 
and  perhaps  our  national  existence." 

This  constitution  having  passed  the  ordeal  of 
congress  and  been  ratified  and  adopted  by  the 
people,  through  the  conventions  of  the  states,  noth 
ing  remained  but  to  organize  the  government  in 
conformity  with  its  provisions.  As  early  as  July 
2,  1788,  congress  had  been  notified  that  the  neces 
sary  approval  of  nine  states  had  been  obtained,  but 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON  33 

not  until  September  13  was  a  day  appointed  for 
the  choice  of  electors  of  president.  That  day  was 
the  first  Wednesday  of  the  following  January, 
while  the  beginning  of  proceedings  under  the  new 
constitution  was  postponed  until  the  first  Wednes 
day  of  March,  which  chanced  in  that  year  to  be 
the  4th  of  March.  Not,  however,  until  April  1 
was  there  a  quorum  for  business  in  the  house  of 
representatives,  and  not  until  April  6  was  the  senate 
organized.  On  that  day,  in  the  presence  of  the 
two  houses,  the  votes  for  president  and  vice-presi 
dent  were  opened  and  counted,  when  Washington, 
having  received  every  vote  from  the  ten  states  that 
took  part  in  the  election,  was  declared  president  of 
the  United  States.  On  April  14  he  received  at 
Mount  Vernon  the  official  announcement  of  his 
election,  and  on  the  morning  of  the  16th  he  set  out 
for  New  York.  "Reluctant,"  as  he  said,  "in  the 
evening  of  life  to  exchange  a  peaceful  abode  for 
an  ocean  of  difficulties,"  he  bravely  added:  "Be 
the  voyage  long  or  short,  although  I  may  be 
deserted  by  all  men,  integrity  and  firmness  shall 
never  forsake  me."  Well  does  Bancroft  exclaim, 
after  recounting  these  details  in  his  "History  of 
the  Constitution":  "But  for  him  the  country  could 
not  have  achieved  its  independence;  but  for  him  it 
could  not  have  formed  its  Union ;  and  now  but  for 
him  it  could  not  set  the  government  in  successful 
motion." 


34       LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

Reaching  New  York  on  the  23d,  after  a  contin 
uous  triumphal  journey  through  Alexandria,  Bal 
timore,  Wilmington,  Philadelphia,  and  Trenton, 
he  was  welcomed  by  the  two  houses  of  congress, 
by  the  governor  of  the  state,  the  magistrates  of  the 
city,  and  by  great  masses  of  the  people.  The  city 
was  illuminated  in  his  honor.  But  he  proceeded 
on  foot  from  the  barge  that  had  brought  him  across 
the  bay  to  the  house  of  the  president  of  the  late 
confederation,  which  had  been  appointed  for  his 
residence.  John  Adams  had  been  installed  in  the 
chair  of  the  senate,  as  vice-president  of  the  United 
States,  on  April  21,  but  congress  could  not  get 
ready  for  the  inauguration  of  the  president  until 
the  30th.  On  that  day  the  oath  of  office  was  admin 
istered  to  Washington  by  Robert  R.  Livingston, 
chancellor  of  the  state  of  New  York,  in  the  pres 
ence  of  the  two  houses  of  congress,  on  a  balcony 
in  front  of  the  hall  in  which  congress  held  its 
sittings,  where  a  statue  has  recently  been  placed. 
Washington  then  retired  to  the  senate-chamber  and 
delivered  his  inaugural  address.  "It  would  be 
peculiarly  improper  to  omit,"  said  he,  "in  this  first 
official  act,  my  fervent  supplications  to  that 
Almighty  Being  who  rules  over  the  universe,  who 
presides  in  the  councils  of  nations,  and  whose 
providential  aids  can  supply  every  human  defect- 
that  his  benediction  may  consecrate  to  the  liberties 
and  happiness  of  the  people  of  the  United  States 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON  35 

a  government  instituted  by  themselves.  .  .  .  No 
people  can  be  bound  to  acknowledge  the  invisible 
hand  which  conducts  the  affairs  of  man  more  than 
the  people  of  the  United  States.  Every  step  by 
which  they  have  advanced  to  the  character  of  an 
independent  nation  seems  to  have  been  distin 
guished  by  some  token  of  providential  agency.  .  .  . 
These  reflections,  arising  out  of  the  present  crisis, 
have  forced  themselves  too  strongly  on  my  mind 
to  be  suppressed.  You  will  join  with  me,  I  trust, 
in  thinking  that  there  are  none  under  the  influence 
of  which  the  proceedings  of  a  new  and  free  govern 
ment  can  more  auspiciously  commence."  In  accord 
ance  with  those  sentiments,  at  the  close  of  the 
ceremony,  Washington  and  both  branches  of  con 
gress  were  escorted  to  St.  Paul's  chapel,  at  the 
corner  of  Broadway  and  Fulton  street,  where  the 
chaplain  of  the  senate  read  prayers  suited  to  the 
occasion,  after  which  they  all  attended  the  president 
to  his  mansion  near  Franklin  square. 

Thus  began  the  administration  of  Washington, 
as  first  president  of  the  United  States,  on  April 
30,  1789.  This  is  a  date  never  to  be  forgotten 
in  American  history,  and  it  would  be  most  happy 
if  the  30th  of  April  could  be  substituted  for  the 
4th  of  March  as  the  inauguration-day  of  the  second 
century  of  our  constitutional  existence.  It  would 
add  two  months  to  the  too  short  second  session  of 
congress,  give  a  probability  of  propitious  weather 


36       LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

for  the  ceremony,  and  be  a  perpetual  commemora 
tion  of  the  day  on  which  Washington  entered  upon 
his  great  office,  and  our  national  government  was 
practically  organized.  An  amendment  to  the  con 
stitution  making  this  change  has  several  times  been 
formally  proposed  and  has  passed  the  U.  S.  senate, 
but  has  failed  of  adoption  in  the  house  of  represen 
tatives.  From  first  to  last,  Washington's  influence 
in  conciliating  all  differences  of  opinion  in  regard 
to  the  rightful  interpretation  and  execution  of  the 
new  constitution  was  most  effective.  The  recently 
printed  journal  of  William  Maclay,  a  senator  from 
Pennsylvania  in  the  1st  congress,  says,  in  allusion 
to  some  early  controversies:  "The  president's 
amiable  deportment,  however,  smoothes  and  sweet 
ens  everything."  Count  Moustier,  the  French 
minister,  in  writing  home  to  his  government,  five 
weeks  after  the  inauguration,  says:  "The  opinion 
of  Gen.  Washington  was  of  such  weight  that  it 
alone  contributed  more  than  any  other  measure 
to  cause  the  present  constitution  to  be  adopted. 
The  extreme  confidence  in  his  patriotism,  his  in 
tegrity,  and  his  intelligence  forms  to-day  its 
principal  support.  .  .  .  All  is  hushed  in  presence 
of  the  trust  of  the  people  in  the  saviour  of  the 
country." 

Washington  had  to  confront  not  a  few  of  the 
same  perplexities  that  all  his  successors  have  ex 
perienced  in  a  still  greater  degree  in  regard  to 


GEORGE   WASHINGTON  37 

appointments  to  office.  But  at  the  earliest  moment 
he  adopted  rules  and  principles  on  this  subject 
which  might  well  be  commended  to  presidents  and 
governors  in  later  days.  In  a  letter  to  his  friend 
James  Bowdoin,  of  Massachusetts,  bearing  date 
May  9,  1789,  less  than  six  weeks  after  his  inaugur 
ation,  he  used  language  that  might  fitly  serve  as 
an  introduction  to  the  civil-service  reform  manual 
of  the  present  hour.  "No  part  of  my  duty,"  he 
says,  "will  be  more  delicate,  and  in  many  instances 
more  unpleasing,  than  that  of  nominating  or 
appointing  persons  to  office.  It  will  undoubtedly 
often  happen  that  there  will  be  several  candidates 
for  the  same  office,  whose  pretensions,  ability,  and 
integrity  may  be  nearly  equal,  and  who  will  come 
forward  so  equally  supported  in  every  respect  as 
almost  to  require  the  aid  of  supernatural  intuition 
to  fix  upon  the  right.  I  shall,  however,  in  all  events, 
have  the  satisfaction  to  reflect  that  I  entered  upon 
my  administration  unconfined  by  a  single  engage 
ment,  uninfluenced  by  any  ties  of  blood  or  friend 
ship,  and  with  the  best  intentions  and  fullest  deter 
mination  to  nominate  to  office  those  persons  only 
who,  upon  every  consideration,  were  the  most 
deserving,  and  who  would  probably  execute  their 
several  functions  to  the  interest  and  credit  of  the 
American  Union,  if  such  characters  could  be  found 
by  my  exploring  every  avenue  of  information 


38       LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

respecting  their  merits  and  pretensions  that  it  was 
in  my  power  to  obtain." 

Appointing  Thomas  Jefferson,  of  Virginia,  as 
his  secretary  of  state;  Alexander  Hamilton,  of 
New  York,  as  his  secretary  of  the  treasury;  and 
Henry  Knox,  of  Massachusetts,  as  his  secretary 
of  war,  he  gave  clear  indication  at  the  outset  that 
no  sectional  interests  or  prejudices  were  to  control 
or  shape  his  policy.  Under  Jefferson,  the  foreign 
affairs  of  the  country  were  administered  with  great 
discretion  and  ability.  Under  Hamilton,  the 
financial  affairs  of  the  country  were  extricated 
from  the  confusion  and  chaos  into  which  they  had 
fallen,  and  the  national  credit  was  established  on 
a  firm  basis.  The  preamble  of  the  very  first 
revenue  bill,  signed  by  Washington  on  July  4, 
1789,  was  a  notable  expression  of  the  views  enter 
tained  in  regard  to  the  powers  and  duties  of  the 
new  government  in  the  regulation  of  trade  and 
the  laying  and  collecting  of  taxes:  "Whereas,  it 
is  necessary  for  the  support  of  government,  for  the 
discharge  of  the  debts  of  the  United  States,  and 
the  encouragement  and  protection  of  manufactur 
ers,  that  duties  be  laid  on  goods,  wares,  and 
merchandise  imported,  Be  it  enacted,  etc."  The 
incorporation  of  a  national  bank  and  kindred 
measures  of  the  highest  interest  soon  followed. 
The  supreme  court  of  the  United  States  was  organ 
ized  with  John  Jay  as  its  first  chief  justice.  Impor- 


GEORGE   WASHINGTON 

From  the  painting,  1790,  by  John  Trunibull  in  the  City  Hall,  New  York 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON  39 

tant  amendments  to  the  constitution  were  framed 
and  recommended  to  the  states  for  adoption,  and 
congress  continued  in  session  till  the  close  of 
September. 

But  in  the  course  of  the  summer  Washington 
had  a  severe  illness,  and  for  some  days  his  life  was 
thought  to  be  in  danger.  Confined  to  his  bed  for 
six  weeks,  it  was  more  than  twelve  weeks  before  he 
was  restored.  With  a  view  to  the  re-establishment 
of  his  health,  as  well  as  for  seeing  the  country,  he 
then  set  off  on  a  tour  to  the  eastern  states,  and 
visited  Boston,  Portsmouth,  NewT  Haven,  and  other 
places.  He  was  welcomed  everywhere  with  un 
bounded  enthusiasm.  No  "royal  progress"  in  any 
country  ever  equalled  this  tour  in  its  demonstra 
tions  of  veneration  and  affection.  A  similar  tour 
with  the  same  manifestations  was  made  by  him 
in  the  southern  states  the  next  year.  As  the  four 
years  of  his  first  term  drew  to  an  end,  he  was 
seriously  inclined  to  withdraw  from  further  public 
service,  but  Jefferson  and  Hamilton  alike,  with  all 
their  respective  followers,  while  they  differed 
widely  on  so  many  other  matters,  were  of  one  mind 
in  earnestly  remonstrating  against  Washington's 
retirement.  "The  confidence  of  the  whole  country," 
wrote  Jefferson,  "is  centred  in  you.  .  .  .  North 
and  south  will  hang  together  if  they  have  you  to 
hang  on."  "It  is  clear,"  wrote  Hamilton,  "that 
if  you  continue  in  office  nothing  materially  mis- 


40       LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

chievous  is  to  be  apprehended;  if  you  quit,  much 
is  to  be  dreaded.  ...  I  trust,  and  I  pray  God, 
that  you  will  determine  to  make  a  further  sacrifice 
of  your  tranquillity  and  happiness  to  the  public 
good."  Washington  could  not  find  it  in  his  heart  to 
resist  such  appeals,  and  allowed  himself  to  be  again 
a  candidate.  He  was  chosen  unanimously  by  the 
electors,  and  took  the  oath  of  office  again  on  March 
4,  1793. 

He  had  just  entered  on  this  second  term  of  the 
presidency  when  the  news  reached  him  that  France 
had  declared  war  against  England  and  Holland. 
He  lost  no  time  in  announcing  his  purpose  to  main 
tain    a    strict    neutrality    toward    the    belligerent 
powers,  and  this  policy  was  unanimously  sustained 
by  his  cabinet.    His  famous  proclamation  of  neu 
trality  was  accordingly  issued  on  April  22,  and 
soon  became  the  subject  of  violent  partisan  con 
troversy  throughout  the  Union.     It  gave  occasion 
to  the  masterly  essays  of  Hamilton  and  Madison, 
under  the  signatures  of  "Pacificus"  and  "Helvi- 
dius,"  and  contributed  more  than  anything  else, 
perhaps,  to  the  original  formation  of  the  Federal 
and  Republican  parties.     The  wisdom  of  Wash 
ington  was  abundantly  justified  by  the  progress  of 
events,  but  he  did  not  escape  the  assaults  of  parti 
san  bitterness.     Mr.  Jay,  still  chief  justice,  was 
sent  to  England  as  minister  early  in  1794,  and  his 
memorable  treaty  added  fuel  to  the  flame. 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON  41 

Meantime  a  tax  on  distilled  spirts  had  encoun 
tered  much  opposition  in  various  parts  of  the 
country,  and  in  August,  1794,  was  forcibly  resisted 
and  defied  by  a  large  body  of  armed  insurgents  in 
the  western  counties  of  Pennsylvania.  Washington 
issued  a  proclamation  calling  out  the  militia  of  the 
neighboring  states,  and  left  home  to  cross  the 
mountains  and  lead  the  troops  in  person.  But  the 
insurrection  happily  succumbed  at  his  approach, 
and  his  presence  became  unnecessary.  The  arro 
gant  and  offensive  conduct  of  the  French  minister, 
M.  Genet,  irreconcilable  dissensions  in  the  cabinet, 
and  renewed  agitations  and  popular  discontents 
growing  out  of  the  Jay  treaty,  gave  Washington 
no  little  trouble  in  these  latter  years  of  his  admin 
istration,  and  he  looked  forward  with  eagerness 
to  a  release  from  official  cares.  Having  made  up 
his  mind  unchangeably  to  decline  another  election 
as  president,  he  thought  it  fit  to  announce  that 
decision  in  the  most  formal  manner.  He  had  con 
sulted  Madison  at  the  close  of  his  first  term  in 
regard  to  an  address  declining  a  second  election. 
He  now  sought  the  advice  and  counsel  of  Alex 
ander  Hamilton,  no  longer  a  member  of  the  cabinet, 
and  the  farewell  address  was  prepared  and  pub 
lished  nearly  six  months  before  his  official  term  had 
expired.  That  immortal  paper  has  often  been 
printed  with  the  date  of  September  17,  1796,  and 
special  interest  has  been  expressed  in  the  coinci- 


42       LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

dence  of  the  date  of  the  address  with  the  date  of 
the  adoption  of  the  constitution   of  the  United 
States.    But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  address  bears 
date  September  19,  1796,  as  may  be  seen  in  the 
autograph  original  now  in  the  Public  library,  New 
York.    Mr.  James  Lenox  purchased  that  precious 
original  from  the  family  of  the  printer  Claypoole, 
by  whom  it  was  published  in  Philadelphia,  and  to 
whom   the   manuscript,    wholly   in   Washington's 
handwriting,  with  all  its  interlineations,  corrections, 
and  erasures,  was  given  by  Washington  himself. 
On  the  following  4th  of  March,  Washington 
was  present  at  the  inauguration  of  his  successor, 
John  Adams,  and  soon  afterward  went  with  his 
family  to  Mount  Vernon,  to  resume  his  agricul 
tural  occupations.    Serious  difficulties  with  France 
were  soon  developed,  and  war  became  imminent. 
A  provisional  army  was  authorized  by  congress  to 
meet  the  exigency,  and  all  eyes  were  again  turned 
toward    Washington    as    its    leader.      President 
Adams    wrote    to    him:    "We    must    have    your 
name,  if  you  will  permit  us  to  use  it.    There  will 
be  more  efficacy  in  it  than  in  many  an  army." 
Hamilton  urged  him  to  make  "this  further,  this 
very  great  sacrifice."    And  thus,  on  July  3,  1798, 
Washington,  yielding  to  the  entreaty  of  friends 
and  a  sense  of  duty  to  his  country,  was  once  more 
commissioned  as  "Lieutenant- General  and  Com 
mander-in-chief  of  all  the  armies  raised,  or  to  be 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON  43 

raised,  in  the  United  States."  The  organization 
and  arrangement  of  this  new  army  now  engrossed 
his  attention.  Deeply  impressed  with  the  great 
responsibility  that  had  been  thrust  upon  him,  and 
having  selected  Alexander  Hamilton  as  his  chief 
of  staff,  to  the  serious  disappointment  of  his  old 
friend  Gen.  Knox,  he  entered  at  once  into  the 
minutest  details  of  the  preparation  for  war,  with 
all  the  energy  and  zeal  of  his  earlier  and  more 
vigorous  days. 

Most  happily  this  war  with  our  late  gallant  ally 
was  averted.  Washington,  however,  did  not  live 
to  receive  the  assurance  of  a  result  that  he  so 
earnestly  desired.  Riding  over  his  farms,  on 
December  12,  to  give  directions  to  the  managers 
of  his  estate,  he  was  overtaken  by  showers  of  rain 
and  sleet,  and  returned  home  wet  and  chilled.  The 
next  day  he  suffered  from  a  hoarse,  sore  throat, 
followed  by  an  ague  at  night.  His  old  physician 
and  surgeon,  Dr.  Craik,  who  had  been  with  him 
in  peace  and  in  war,  was  summoned  from  Alex 
andria  the  next  morning,  and  two  other  physicians 
were  called  into  consultation  during  the  day.  At 
four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  he  requested  his  wife, 
who  was  constantly  at  his  bedside,  to  bring  him  two 
papers  from  his  study,  one  of  which  he  gave  back 
to  her  as  his  will.  At  six  o'clock  he  said  to  the  three 
physicians  around  him:  "I  feel  myself  going;  I 
thank  you  for  your  attentions,  but  I  pray  you  to 


44      LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

take  no  more  trouble  about  me."  He  had  previ 
ously  said  to  Dr.  Craik:  "I  die  hard,  but  I  am 
not  afraid  to  go."  About  ten  o'clock  he  succeeded 
with  difficulty  in  giving  some  directions  about  his 
funeral  to  Mr.  Lear,  his  secretary,  and  on  Mr. 
Lear's  assuring  him  that  he  was  understood,  he 
uttered  his  last  words:  "It  is  well."  And  thus, 
between  ten  and  eleven  o'clock  on  Saturday  night, 
December  14,  1799,  the  end  came,  and  his  spirit 
returned  to  God  who  gave  it. 

The  funeral  took  place  on  the  18th.  Such  troops 
as  were  in  the  neighborhood  formed  the  escort  of 
the  little  procession;  the  general's  favorite  horse 
was  led  behind  the  bier,  the  Freemasons  performed 
their  ceremonies,  the  Rev.  Thomas  Davis  read  the 
service  and  made  a  brief  address,  a  schooner  lying 
in  the  Potomac  fired  minute-guns,  the  relatives  and 
friends  within  reach,  including  Lord  Fairfax  and 
the  corporation  of  Alexandria,  were  in  attendance, 
and  the  body  was  deposited  in  the  vault  at  Mount 
Vernon.  At  Mount  Vernon  it  has  remained  to 
this  day.  Virginia  would  never  consent  to  its  re 
moval  to  the  stately  vault  prepared  for  it  beneath 
the  capitol  at  Washington.  Congress  was  in  ses 
sion  at  Philadelphia,  and  the  startling  news  of 
Washington's  death  only  reached  there  on  the  day 
of  his  funeral.  The  next  morning  John  Marshall, 
then  a  representative  from  Virginia,  afterward  for 
thirty- four  years  chief  justice  of  the  supreme  court 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON  45 

of  the  United  States,  announced  the  death  in  the 
house  of  representatives,  concluding  a  short  but 
admirable  tribute  to  his  illustrious  friend  with 
resolutions  prepared  by  General  Henry  Lee,  which 
contained  the  grand  words  that  have  ever  since  been 
associated  with  Washington:  "First  in  war,  first 
in  peace,  and  first  in  the  hearts  of  his  fellow-citi 
zens."  Gen.  Lee  pronounced  a  eulogy,  by  order 
of  both  houses  of  congress,  on  December  26,  in 
which  he  changed  the  last  word  of  his  own  famous 
phrase  to  "countrymen,"  and  it  is  so  given  in  the 
eulogy  as  published  by  congress. 

Meantime  congress  adopted  a  resolution  recom 
mending  to  the  people  of  the  United  States  to 
assemble  on  the  following  February  22,  in  such 
manner  as  should  be  convenient,  to  testify  publicly 
by  eulogies,  orations,  and  discourses,  or  by  public 
prayers,  their  grief  for  the  death  of  George  Wash 
ington.  In  conformity  with  this  recommendation, 
eulogies  or  sermons  were  delivered,  or  exercises  of 
some  sort  held,  in  almost  every  city,  town,  village, 
or  hamlet,  throughout  the  land.  Such  was  the  first 
observance  of  Washington's  birthday; — thence 
forth  to  be  a  national  holiday.  But  not  in  our  own 
land  only  was  his  death  commemorated.  Napoleon 
Bonaparte,  then  first  consul,  announced  it  to  the 
army  of  France,  and  ordered  all  the  standards  and 
flags  throughout  the  republic  to  be  bound  with 
crape  for  ten  days,  during  which  a  funeral  oration 


46       LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

was  pronounced  in  presence  of  the  first  consul  and 
all  the  civil  and  military  authorities,  in  what  is 
now  the  Hotel  des  Invalides.  More  striking  still 
is  the  fact,  mentioned  by  Jared  Sparks,  that  the 
British  fleet,  consisting  of  nearly  sixty  ships  of 
the  line,  which  was  lying  at  Torbay,  England, 
under  the  command  of  Lord  Bridport,  lowered 
their  flags  half-mast  on  hearing  the  intelligence 
of  Washington's  death. 

In  later  years  the  tributes  to  the  memory  of 
Washington  have  been  such  as  no  other  man  of 
modern  or  even  of  ancient  history  has  commanded. 
He  has  sometimes  been  compared,  after  the  man 
ner  of  Plutarch,  with  Epaminondas  or  Timoleon, 
or  Alfred  the  Great  of  England.  But  an  eminent 
living  English  historian  has  recently  and  justly 
said  that  the  place  of  Washington  in  the  history 
of  mankind  "is  well-nigh  without  a  fellow."  In 
deed,  the  general  judgment  of  the  world  has  given 
ready  assent  to  the  carefully  weighed,  twice  re 
peated  declaration  of  Lord  Brougham:  "It  will 
be  the  duty  of  the  historian  and  sage  in  all  ages 
to  let  no  occasion  pass  of  commemorating  this 
illustrious  man;  and,  until  time  shall  be  no  more, 
will  a  test  of  the  progress  which  our  race  has  made 
in  wisdom  and  virtue  be  derived  from  the  venera 
tion  paid  to  the  immortal  name  of  Washington!" 
Modest,  disinterested,  generous,  just,  of  clean 
hands  and  a  pure  heart,  self-denying  and  self- 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON  47 

sacrificing1,  seeking  nothing  for  himself,  declining 
all  remuneration  beyond  the  reimbursement  of  his 
outlays,  scrupulous  to  a  farthing  in  keeping  his 
accounts,  of  spotless  integrity,  scorning  gifts, 
charitable  to  the  needy,  forgiving  injuries  and  in 
justice,  fearless,  heroic  with  a  prudence  ever 
governing  his  impulses  and  a  wisdom  ever  guiding 
his  valor,  true  to  his  friends,  true  to  his  whole  coun 
try,  true  to  himself,  fearing  God,  believing  in 
Christ,  no  stranger  to  private  devotion  or  public 
worship,  or  to  the  holiest  offices  of  the  church  to 
which  he  belonged,  but  ever  gratefully  recognizing 
a  divine  aid  and  direction  in  all  that  he  attempted 
and  in  all  that  he  accomplished — what  epithet, 
what  attribute,  could  be  added  to  that  consummate 
character  to  commend  it  as  an  example  above  all 
other  characters  in  merely  human  history? 

Washington's  most  important  original  papers 
were  bequeathed  to  his  favorite  nephew,  Bushrod 
Washington,  and  were  committed  by  him  to  Chief- 
Justice  John  Marshall,  by  whom  an  elaborate  life, 
in  five  volumes,  was  published  in  1804.  Abridged 
editions  of  this  great  work, have  been  published 
more  recently.  "The  Writings  of  Washington," 
with  a  life,  were  published  by  Jared  Sparks  (12 
vols.,  Boston,  1834-'7).  A  new  edition  of  Wash 
ington's  complete  works  in  14  vols.,  edited  by 
Worthington  C.  Ford,  containing  many  letters 
and  papers  now  published  for  the  first  time, 


48       LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

has  recently  been  completed  (New  York,  1888- 
'93).  Biographies  have  also  been  published  by 
Mason  L.  Weems,  David  Ramsay,  James  K. 
Paulding,  Charles  W.  Upham,  Joel  T.  Headley, 
Caroline  M.  Kirkland,  and  Edward  Everett  Hale. 
Benson  J.  Lossing  made  an  interesting  con 
tribution  to  the  illustration  of  the  same  theme  by 
his  "Mount  Vernon  and  its  Associations"  in  1859. 
Meanwhile  the  genius  of  Washington  Irving  has 
illuminated  the  whole  story  of  Washington's  life, 
public  and  private,  and  thrown  around  it  the 
charms  of  exquisite  style  and  lucid  narrative  (5 
vols.,  New  York,  1855-'9).  An  abridgment  and 
revision  of  Irving's  work,  by  John  Fiske  (New 
York,  1888),  and  "General  Washington,"  by 
Bradley  T.  Johnston  (1894),  have  recently  ap 
peared.  A  sketch  was  prepared  by  Edward 
Everett,  at  the  request  of  Lord  Macaulay,  for  the 
eighth  edition  of  the  "Encyclopaedia  Britannica" 
(1853-1860),  which  was  afterward  published  in  a 
separate  volume.  To  Edward  Everett,  too,  be 
longs  the  principal  credit  of  having  saved  Mount 
Vernon  from  the  auctioneer's  hammer,  and  secured 
its  preservation,  under  the  auspices  of  the  Ladies' 
Mount  Vernon  Association,  as  a  place  of  pil 
grimage.  He  wrote  fifty-two  articles  for  the  New 
York  "Ledger,"  and  delivered  his  lecture  on 
Washington  many  times,  contributing  the  proceeds 
to  the  Mount  Vernon  fund. 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON 

Bust  of  the  Slutue  by  Iluuilon  in  the  Capitol,  Richmond,  Va. 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON  49 

The  marble  statue  in  the  capitol  at  Richmond, 
Va.,  by  the  French  sculptor  Houdon,  from  life, 
must  be  named  first  among  the  standard  likenesses 
of  Washington.  Excellent  portraits  of  him  by 
John  Trumbull,  by  both  the  Peales,  and  by  Gilbert 
Stuart,  are  to  be  seen  in  many  public  galleries. 
Stuart's  head  leaves  nothing  to  be  desired  in  the 
way  of  dignity  and  grandeur.  Among  the  numer 
ous  monuments  that  have  been  erected  to  his 
memory  may  be  mentioned  the  noble  column  in 
Baltimore;  the  colossal  statue  in  the  Capitol 
grounds  at  Washington,  by  Horatio  Greenough; 
the  splendid  group  in  Richmond,  surmounted  by 
an  equestrian  statue,  by  Thomas  Crawford;  the 
marble  statue  in  the  Massachusetts  state-house,  by 
Sir  Francis  Chantrey;  the  equestrian  statue  in  the 
Boston  public  garden  by  Thomas  Ball;  the  eques 
trian  statue  in  Union  square,  New  York,  by  Henry 
K.  Brown;  and,  lastly,  the  matchless  obelisk  at 
Washington,  of  which  the  corner-stone  was  laid 
in  1848,  upon  which  the  cap-stone  was  placed,  at 
the  height  of  555  feet,  in  1884,  and  which  was 
dedicated  by  congress  on  February  21,  1885,  as 
Washington's  birthday  that  year  fell  on  Sunday. 
The  engraving,  which  appears  as  a  frontispiece  to 
this  volume,  is  from  Stuart's  original  in  the  Boston 
Athengeum.  The  vignette  of  Mrs.  Washington 
given  among  the  portraits  of  the  wives  of  presi- 


50       LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

dents  is  from  the  painting  by  the  same  distinguished 
artist. 

His  wife,  MARTHA,,  born  in  New  Kent  County, 
Va.,  in  May,  1732;  died  at  Mount  Vernon,  Va., 
May  22,  1802,  was  the  daughter  of  Col.  John 
Dandridge,  a  planter  in  New  Kent  County. 
Martha  was  fairly  educated  by  private  tutors,  and 
became  an  expert  performer  on  the  spinet.  She 
was  introduced  to  the  vice-regal  court,  during  the 
administration  of  Sir  William  Gooch,  at  fifteen 
years  of  age,  and  in  June,  1749,  married  Daniel 
Parke  Custis,  a  wealthy  planter,  with  whom  she 
removed  to  his  residence,  the  White  House,  on 
Pamunkey  river.  They  had  four  children,  two  of 
whom  died  in  infancy,  and  in  1757  Mr.  Custis  also 
died,  leaving  his  widow  one  of  the  wealthiest 
women  in  Virginia.  About  a  year  after  her  hus 
band's  death  she  met  Col.  Washington,  who  was 
visiting  at  the  house  of  Maj.  William  Chamber- 
layne,  where  she  too  was  a  guest.  In  May,  1758, 
they  became  engaged,  but  the  marriage  was  de 
layed  by  Col.  Washington's  northern  campaign, 
and  it  was  not  till  January,  1759,  that  it  was 
solemnized,  at  St.  Peter's  church,  New  Kent 
County,  the  Rev.  John  Mossum  performing  the 
ceremony.  The  wedding  was  one  of  the  most  bril 
liant  that  had  ever  been  seen  in  a  church  in  Vir 
ginia.  The  bridegroom  wore  a  suit  of  blue  cloth, 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON  51 

the  coat  lined  with  red  silk,  and  ornamented  with 
silver  trimmings;  his  waistcoat  was  embroidered 
white  satin,  his  knee-buckles  were  of  gold,  and  his 
hair  was  powdered.  The  bride  was  attired  in  a 
white  satin  quilted  petticoat,  a  heavily  corded  white 
silk  over-dress,  diamond  buckles,  and  pearl  orna 
ments.  The  governor,  many  members  of  the  legis 
lature,  British  officers,  and  the  neighboring  gentry 
were  present  in  full  court  dress.  Washington's 
body-servant,  Bishop,  a  tall  negro,  to  whom  he  was 
much  attached  and  who  had  accompanied  him  on 
all  his  military  campaigns,  stood  in  the  porch, 
clothed  in  the  scarlet  uniform  of  a  soldier  of  the 
royal  army  in  the  time  of  George  II.  The  bride 
and  her  three  attendants  drove  back  to  the  White 
House  in  a  coach  drawn  by  six  horses  led  by 
liveried  postilions,  Col.  Washington  and  an  escort 
of  cavaliers  riding  by  its  side.  Mrs.  Washington's 
life  at  Mount  Vernon  for  the  subsequent  seventeen 
years  partook  much  of  the  style  of  the  English 
aristocracy.  She  was  a  thorough  housekeeper,  and 
entertained  constantly.  Her  daughter,  Martha 
Parke  Custis,  who  died  in  the  seventeenth  year  of 
her  age,  was  known  as  the  "dark  lady,"  on  account 
of  her  brunette  complexion,  and  was  greatly  loved 
by  the  neighboring  poor,  to  whom  she  frequently 
ministered.  On  her  well  preserved  portrait,  painted 
by  Charles  Wilson  Peale,  is  inscribed  "A  Virginia 
Beauty." 


52       LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

Mrs.  Washington  ardently  sympathized  with  her 
husband  in  his  patriotic  measures.  To  a  kins 
woman,  who  deprecated  what  she  called  "his  folly," 
Mrs.  Washington  wrote  in  1774:  "Yes,  I  foresee 
consequences — dark  days,  domestic  happiness  sus 
pended,  social  enjoyments  abandoned,  and  eternal 
separations  on  earth  possible.  But  my  mind  is 
made  up,  my  heart  is  in  the  cause.  George  is  right ; 
he  is  always  right.  God  has  promised  to  protect 
the  righteous,  and  I  will  trust  him."  Patrick 
Henry  and  Edmund  Pendleton  spent  a  day  and 
night  at  Mount  Vernon  in  August,  1774,  on  their 
way  to  congress.  Pendleton  afterward  wrote  to 
a  friend:  "Mrs.  Washington  talked  like  a  Spartan 
to  her  son  on  his  going  to  battle.  *I  hope  you  will 
all  stand  firm,'  she  said;  'I  know  George  will.' ' 
After  her  husband  became  commander-in-chief  she 
was  burdened  with  many  cares.  He  visited  Mount 
Vernon  only  twice  during  the  war.  She  joined  him 
at  Cambridge,  Mass.,  in  1775,  subsequently  accom 
panying  Gen.  Washington  to  New  York  and 
Philadelphia,  and  whenever  it  was  possible  joined 
him  in  camp.  During  the  winter  at  Valley  Forge 
she  suffered  every  privation  in  common  with  the 
officers,  and  "was  busy  from  morning  till  night 
providing  comforts  for  the  sick  soldiers."  Al 
though  previous  to  the  war  she  had  paid  much 
attention  to  her  attire,  as  became  her  wealth  and 
station,  while  it  continued  she  dressed  only  in  gar- 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON  53 

ments  that  were  spun  and  woven  by  her  servants 
at  Mount  Vernon.  At  a  ball  in  New  Jersey  that 
was  given  in  her  honor  she  wore  one  of  these  simple 
gowns  and  a  white  kerchief,  "as  an  example  of 
economy  to  the  women  of  the  Revolution."  Her 
last  surviving  child,  John  Parke  Custis,  died  in 
November,  1781,  leaving  four  children.  The  two 
younger,  Eleanor  Parke  Custis  and  George  Wash 
ington  Parke  Custis,  Gen.  Washington  at  once 
adopted.  After  Mrs.  Washington  left  headquar 
ters  at  Newburgh  in  1782,  she  did  not  again  return 
to  camp  life.  She  was  residing  at  Mount  Vernon 
at  the  time  Washington  was  chosen  president  of 
the  United  States.  When  she  assumed  the  duties 
of  mistress  of  the  executive  mansion  in  New  York 
she  was  fifty-seven  years  old,  but  still  retained 
traces  of  beauty,  and  bore  herself  with  great  per 
sonal  dignity.  She  instituted  levees,  that  she  ever 
afterward  continued,  on  Friday  evening  of  each 
week  from  eight  to  nine  o'clock.  "None  were 
admitted  but  those  who  had  a  right  of  entrance 
by  official  station  or  established  character,"  and 
full  dress  was  required.  During  the  second  term 
of  the  president  they  resided  in  Philadelphia,  where 
their  public  receptions  were  conducted  as  those 
in  New  York  had  been.  An  English  gentleman, 
describing  her  at  her  own  table  in  1794,  says: 
"Mrs.  Washington  struck  me  as  being  older  than 
the  president.  She  was  extremely  simple  in  dress, 


54       LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

and  wore  her  gray  hair  turned  up  under  a  very 
plain  cap."  She  greatly  disliked  official  life,  and 
rejoiced  when  her  husband  refused  a  third  term 
in  1796.  She  resided  at  Mount  Vernon  during 
the  remainder  of  her  life,  occupied  with  her 
domestic  duties,  of  which  she  was  fond,  and  in 
entertaining  the  numerous  guests  that  visited 
her  husband.  She  survived  him  two  and  a  half 
years.  Before  her  death  she  destroyed  her  entire 
correspondence  with  Gen.  Washington.  "Thus," 
says  her  grandson  and  biographer,  George  Wash 
ington  Parke  Custis,  "proving  her  love  for  him, 
for  she  would  not  permit  that  the  confidence  they 
had  shared  together  should  be  made  public."  See 
"Memoirs  of  the  Mother  and  Wife  of  Washing 
ton,"  by  Margaret  C.  Conkling  (Auburn,  N.  Y., 
1851),  "Mary  and  Martha,"  by  Benson  J.  Lossing 
(New  York,  1887),  "The  Story  of  Mary  Wash 
ington,"  by  Marion  Harland  (Boston,  1892),  and 
"Martha  Washington,"  by  Anne  Hollingsworth 
Wharton  (New  York,  1897). 

His  adopted  son,  GEORGE  WASHINGTON  PARKE 
CUSTIS,  author,  born  at  Mount  Airy,  Md.,  April 
30,  1781;  died  at  Arlington  House,  Fairfax 
County,  Virginia,  October  10,  1857.  His  father, 
Col.  John  Parke  Custis,  the  son  of  Mrs.  Washing 
ton  by  her  first  husband,  was  aide-de-camp  to 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON  55 

Washington  at  the  siege  of  Yorktown,  and  died 
November  5,  1781,  aged  twenty-eight.  The  son 
had  his  early  home  at  Mount  Vernon,  pursued  his 
classical  studies  at  St.  John's  College  and  at 
Princeton,  and  remained  a  member  of  Washing 
ton's  family  until  the  death  of  Mrs.  Washington 
in  1802,  when  he  built  Arlington  House  on  an 
estate  of  1,000  acres  near  Washington,  which  he 
had  inherited  from  his  father.  After  the  death  in 
1852  of  his  sister,  Eleanor  Parke  Ctistis,  wife  of 
Major  Lawrence  Lewis,  he  was  the  sole  surviving 
member  of  Washington's  family,  and  his  residence 
was  for  many  years  a  favorite  resort,  owing  to  the 
interesting  relics  of  that  family  which  it  contained. 
Mr.  Custis  married  in  early  life  Mary  Lee  Fitz- 
hugh,  of  Virginia,  and  left  a  daughter,  who  mar 
ried  Robert  E.  Lee.  The  Arlington  estate  was 
confiscated  during  the  civil  war,  and  is  now  held 
as  national  property  and  is  the  site  of  a  national 
soldiers'  cemetery.  Mr.  Custis  was  in  his  early 
days  an  eloquent  and  effective  speaker.  He  wrote 
orations  and  plays,  and  during  his  latter  years 
executed  a  number  of  large  paintings  of  Revo 
lutionary  battles.  His  "Recollections  of  Wash 
ington,"  originally  contributed  to  the  "National 
Intelligencer,"  was  published  in  book-form,  with  a 
memoir  by  his  daughter  and  numerous  notes  by 
Benson  J.  Lossing  (New  York,  1860). 


56       LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

Washington's  brother-in-law,  FIELDING  LEWIS, 
patriot,  born  in  Spottsylvania  County,  Va.,  in  1726; 
died  in  Fredericksburg,  Va.,  in  December,  1781. 
He  was  the  proprietor  of  half  the  town  of  Fred 
ericksburg,  Va.,  of  which  he  was  the  first  mayor, 
and  of  much  of  the  adjoining  territory,  and  dur 
ing  the  Revolution  he  was  an  ardent  patriot,  super 
intending  a  large  manufactory  of  arms  in  that 
neighborhood;  the  site  of  this  establishment  is  still 
known  as  "Gunny  Green."  He  was  a  magistrate 
and  a  member  of  the  Virginia  legislature  for  many 
years.  He  married  Elizabeth,  sister  of  George 
Washington,  and  built  for  her  a  mansion  that  is 
still  standing,  called  Kenmore  House,  which  was 
handsomely  constructed  and  ornamented  with  carv 
ings  that  were  brought  from  England  for  the 
purpose.  His  wife  was  majestic  in  person  and 
lovely  in  mental  and  moral  attributes.  Later  in 
life  she  so  much  resembled  her  brother  George  that, 
by  putting  on  his  long  military  coat  and  his  hat, 
she  could  easily  have  been  mistaken  for  the  gen 
eral.  Mary,  the  mother  of  Washington,  died  on 
Mr.  Lewis's  farm  and  is  buried  there.  Of  their 
sons,  GEORGE  was  a  captain  in  Washington's  life 
guard,  ROBERT  one  of  his  private  secretaries,  and 
ANDREW  was  aide  to  Gen.  Daniel  Morgan  in  sup 
pressing  the  whiskey  insurrection  in  Pennsylvania. 
Another  son,  LAWRENCE,  was  Washington's 
favorite  nephew. 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON  57 

His  wife,  ELEANOR  PARKE  CUSTIS,  born  at 
Abingdon,  Fairfax  County,  Va.,  in  March,  1779; 
died  at  Audley,  Clarke  County,  Va.,  July  15,  1852, 
was  the  daughter  of  John  Parke  Custis,  the  son 
of  Martha  Washington.  At  the  death  of  her 
father,  in  1781,  she,  with  her  brother  George,  was 
adopted  by  Gen.  Washington,  and  lived  at  Mount 
Vernon.  Eleanor  was  regarded  as  the  most  bril 
liant  and  beautiful  young  woman  of  her  day,  the 
pride  of  her  grandmother,  and  the  favorite  of 
Washington,  who  was  the  playmate  of  her  child 
hood  and  the  confidant  of  her  girlhood.  However 
abstracted,  she  could  always  command  his  atten 
tion,  and  he  would  put  aside  the  most  important 
matter  to  attend  to  her  demands.  She  was  accom 
plished  in  drawing,  and  a  good  musician.  Wash 
ington  presented  her  with  a  harpsichord  at  the  cost 
of  a  thousand  dollars.  Irving  relates  an  anecdote 
that  illustrates  their  relations:  "She  was  romantic, 
and  fond  of  wandering  in  the  moonlight  alone  in 
the  woods.  Mrs.  Washington  thought  this  unsafe, 
and  forced  from  her  a  promise  that  she  would  not 
visit  the  woods  again  unaccompanied,  but  she  was 
brought  one  evening  into  the  drawing-room  where 
her  grandmother,  seated  in  her  arm-chair,  began 
in  the  presence  of  the  general  a  severe  reproof. 
Poor  Nellie  was  reminded  of  her  promise,  and 
taxed  with  her  delinquency.  She  admitted  her 
fault  and  essayed  no  excuse,  moving  to  retire  from 


58       LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

the  room.  She  was  just  closing  the  door  when  she 
overheard  Washington  attempting  in  a  low  voice 
to  intercede  in  her  behalf.  'My  dear,'  he  observed, 
'I  would  say  no  more — perhaps  she  was  not  alone.' 
His  intercession  stopped  Miss  Nellie  in  her  retreat. 
She  reopened  the  door  and  advanced  up  to  the  gen 
eral  with  a  firm  step.  'Sir,'  said  she,  'you  brought 
me  up  to  speak  the  truth,  and,  when  I  told  grand 
mamma  I  was  alone,  I  hope  you  believe  I  was 
alone.'  Washington  made  one  of  his  most  mag 
nanimous  bows.  'My  child,'  he  replied,  'I  beg  your 
pardon.' '  In  February,  1799,  she  married  his 
nephew,  Lawrence  Lewis,  the  son  of  his  sister 
Elizabeth.  Young  Lewis,  after  Washington's  re 
tirement  from  public  life,  had  resided  at  Mount 
Vernon,  and  after  their  marriage  they  continued 
there  till  the  death  of  Mrs.  Washington  in  May, 
1802. 

Their  grandson,  EDWARD  PARKE  CUSTIS  LEWIS, 
diplomatist,  born  in  Audley,  Clarke  County,  Va., 
February  7, 1837;  died  in  Hoboken,  N.  J.,  Septem 
ber  3,  1892.  He  was  educated  at  the  tTniversity 
of  Virginia,  and  studied  law,  but  subsequently 
became  a  planter.  He  served  throughout  the  War 
of  the  Rebellion  in  the  Confederate  army,  rising 
to  the  rank  of  colonel,  and  for  fifteen  months  was 
a  prisoner  of  war.  He  settled  in  Hoboken,  in 
1875,  having  previously  married  Mrs.  Mary  Gar- 
nett,  eldest  daughter  of  Edwin  A.  Stevens,  of  New 


GEORGE    WASHINGTON  59 

Jersey,  and  widow  of  Muscoe  R.  H.  Garnett, 
Member  of  Congress  from  Virginia,  served  in  the 
New  Jersey  legislature  in  1877,  was  a  delegate  to 
the  Democratic  national  convention  in  1880,  and  in 
1885  was  appointed  by  President  Cleveland  United 
States  minister  to  Portugal. 


JOHN    ADAMS 

BY 

JOHN  FISKE 


JOHN  ADAMS 

JOHN  ADAMS,,  second  president  of  the  United 
States,  born  in  that  part  of  the  town  of  Braintree, 
Mass.,  which  has  since  been  set  off  as  the  town  of 
Quincy,  October  31,  1735;  died  there,  July  4,  1826. 
His  great-grandfather,  Henry  Adams,  received  a 
grant  of  about  40  acres  of  land  in  Braintree  in 
1636,  and  soon  afterward  emigrated  from  Devon 
shire,  England,  with  his  eight  sons.  John  Adams, 
the  subject  of  this  sketch,  was  the  eldest  son  of 
John  Adams  and  Susanna  Boylston,  daughter  of 
Peter  Boylston,  of  Brookline.  His  father,  one  of 
the  selectmen  of  Braintree  and  a  deacon  of  the 
church,  was  a  thrifty  farmer,  and  at  his  death  in 
1760  his  estate  was  appraised  at  £1,330  9s.  6d., 
which  in  those  days  might  have  been  regarded  as 
a  moderate  competence.  It  was  the  custom  of  the 
family  to  send  the  eldest  son  to  college,  and  accord 
ingly  John  was  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1755. 
Previous  to  1773  the  graduates  of  Harvard  were 
arranged  in  lists,  not  alphabetically  or  in  order 
of  merit,  but  according  to  the  social  standing  of 
their  parents.  In  a  class  of  twenty- four  members 
John  thus  stood  fourteenth.  One  of  his  classmates 

63 


64       LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

was  John  Wentworth,  afterward  royal  governor 
of  New  Hampshire,  and  then  of  Nova  Scotia. 
After  taking  his  degree  and  while  waiting  to  make 
his  choice  of  a  profession,  Adams  took  charge  of 
the  grammar  school  at  Worcester.  It  was  the  year 
of  Braddock's  defeat,  when  the  smouldering  fires 
of  a  century  of  rivalry  between  France  and  Eng 
land  broke  out  in  a  blaze  of  war  which  was  forever 
to  settle  the  question  of  the  primacy  of  the  Eng 
lish  race  in  the  modern  world.  Adams  took  an 
intense  interest  in  the  struggle,  and  predicted  that 
if  we  could  only  drive  out  "these  turbulent  Gallics," 
our  numbers  would  in  another  century  exceed  those 
of  the  British,  and  all  Europe  would  be  unable  to 
subdue  us. 

In  sending  him  to  college  his  family  seem  to 
have  hoped  that  he  would  become  a  clergyman ;  but 
he  soon  found  himself  too  much  of  a  free  thinker 
to  feel  at  home  in  the  pulpit  of  that  day.  When 
accused  of  Arminianism,  he  cheerfully  admitted 
the  charge.  Later  in  life  he  was  sometimes  called 
a  Unitarian,  but  of  dogmatic  Christianity  he  seems 
to  have  had  as  little  as  Franklin  or  Jefferson. 
"Where  do  we  find,"  he  asks,  ua  precept  in  the 
gospel  requiring  ecclesiastical  synods,  convocations, 
councils,  decrees,  creeds,  confessions,  oaths,  sub 
scriptions,  and  whole  cart-loads  of  other  trumpery 
that  we  find  religion  encumbered  with  in  these 
days?"  In  this  mood  he  turned  from  the  ministry 


From  the  painting  by  Gilbert  Stuart,  now  in  the  possession  of  his  great-grandson 


JOHN    ADAMS  65 

and  began  the  study  of  law  at  Worcester.  There 
was  then  a  strong  prejudice  against  lawyers  in  New 
England,  but  the  profession  throve  lustily  never 
theless,  so  litigious  were  the  people.  In  1758 
Adams  began  the  practice  of  his  profession  in  Suf 
folk  County,  having  his  residence  in  Braintree.  In 
1764  he  was  married  to  Abigail  Smith,  of  Wey- 
mouth,  a  lady  of  social  position  higher  than  his 
own  and  endowed  with  most  rare  and  admirable 
qualities  of  head  and  heart.  In  this  same  year 
the  agitation  over  the  proposed  stamp  act  was  be 
gun,  and  on  the  burning  questions  raised  by  this 
ill-considered  measure  Adams  had  already  taken 
sides.  When  James  Otis  in  1761  delivered  his 
memorable  argument  against  writs  of  assistance, 
John  Adams  was  present  in  the  court-room,  and 
the  fiery  eloquence  of  Otis  wrought  a  wonderful 
effect  upon  him.  As  his  son  afterward  said,  "it 
was  like  the  oath  of  Hamilcar  administered  to  Han 
nibal."  In  his  old  age  John  Adams  wrote,  with 
reference  to  this  scene,  "Every  man  of  an  immense 
crowded  audience  appeared  to  me  to  go  away,  as 
I  did,  ready  to  take  arms  against  writs  of  assist 
ance.  Then  and  there  was  the  first  scene  of  the 
first  act  of  opposition  to  the  arbitrary  claims  of 
Great  Britain.  Then  and  there  the  child  Inde 
pendence  was  born." 

When  the  stamp  act  was  passed,  in  1765,  Adams 
took  a  prominent  part  in  a  town-meeting  at  Brain- 


66       LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

tree,  where  he  presented  resolutions  which  were 
adopted  word  for  word  by  more  than  forty  towns 
in  Massachusetts.  The  people  refused  to  make 
use  of  stamps,  and  the  business  of  the  inferior 
courts  was  carried  on  without  them,  judges  and 
lawyers  agreeing  to  connive  at  the  absence  of  the 
stamps.  In  the  supreme  court,  however,  where 
Thomas  Hutchinson  was  chief  justice,  the  judges 
refused  to  transact  any  business  without  stamps. 
This  threatened  serious  interruption  to  business, 
and  the  town  of  Boston  addressed  a  memorial 
to  the  governor  and  council,  praying  that  the 
supreme  court  might  overlook  the  absence  of 
stamps.  John  Adams  was  unexpectedly  chosen, 
along  with  Jeremiah  Gridley  and  James  Otis,  as 
counsel  for  the  town,  to  argue  the  case  in  favor 
of  the  memorial.  Adams  delivered  the  opening 
argument,  and  took  the  decisive  ground  that  the 
stamp  act  was  ipso  facto  null  and  void,  since  it 
was  a  measure  of  taxation  which  the  people  of  the 
colony  had  taken  no  share  in  passing.  No  such 
measure,  he  declared,  could  be  held  as  binding  in 
America,  and  parliament  had  no  right  to  tax  the 
colonies.  The  governor  and  council  refused  to  act 
in  the  matter,  but  presently  the  repeal  of  the  stamp 
act  put  an  end  to  the  disturbance  for  a  while. 
About  this  time  -Mr.  Adams  began  writing  articles 
for  the  Boston  "Gazette."  Four  of  these  articles, 
dealing  with  the  constitutional,  rights  of  the  people 


JOHN   ADAMS  67 

of  New  England,  were  afterward  republished 
under  the  somewhat  curious  title  of  "An  Essay 
on  the  Canon  and  Federal  Law."  After  ten  years 
of  practice,  Mr.  Adams's  business  had  become  quite 
extensive,  and  in  1768  he  moved  into  Boston.  The 
attorney-general  of  Massachusetts,  Jonathan 
Sewall,  now  offered  him  the  lucrative  office  of 
advocate-general  in  the  court  of  admiralty.  This 
was  intended  to  operate  as  an  indirect  bribe  by  put 
ting  Mr.  Adams  into  a  position  in  which  he  could 
not  feel  free  to  oppose  the  policy  of  the  crown; 
such  insidious  methods  were  systematically  pur 
sued  by  Gov.  Bernard,  and  after  him  by  Hutchin- 
son.  But  Mr.  Adams  was  too  wary  to  swallow  the 
bait,  and  he  stubbornly  refused  the  pressing  offer. 
In  1770  came  the  first  in  the  series  of  great  acts 
that  made  Mr.  Adams's  career  illustrious.  In  the 
midst  of  the  terrible  excitement  aroused  by  the 
"Boston  Massacre"  he  served  as  counsel  for  Capt. 
Preston  and  his  seven  soldiers  when  they  were  tried 
for  murder.  His  friend  and  kinsman,  Josiah 
Quincy,  assisted  him  in  this  invidious  task.  The 
trial  was  judiciously  postponed  for  seven  months 
until  the  popular  fury  had  abated.  Preston  and 
five  soldiers  were  acquitted;  the  other  two  soldiers 
were  found  guilty  of  manslaughter,  and  were  bar 
barously  branded  on  the  hand  with  a  hot  iron.  The 
verdict  seems  to  have  been  strictly  just  according 
to  the  evidence  presented.  For  his  services  to  his 


68       LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

eight  clients  Mr.  Adams  received  a  fee  of  nineteen 
guineas,  but  never  got  so  much  as  a  word  of  thanks 
from  the  churlish  Preston.  An  ordinary  American 
politician  would  have  shrunk  from  the  task  of  de 
fending  these  men,  for  fear  of  losing  favor  with 
the  people.  The  course  pursued  by  Mr.  Adams 
showed  great  moral  courage;  and  the  people  of 
Boston  proved  themselves  able  to  appreciate  true 
manliness  by  electing  him  as  representative  to  the 
legislature.  This  was  in  June,  1770,  after  he  had 
undertaken  the  case  of  the  soldiers,  but  before  the 
trial.  Mr.  Adams  now  speedily  became  the  prin 
cipal  legal  adviser  of  the  patriot  party,  and  among 
its  foremost  leaders  was  only  less  conspicuous  than 
Samuel  Adams,  Hancock,  and  Warren.  In  all 
matters  of  legal  controversy  between  these  leaders 
and  Gov.  Hutchinson  his  advice  proved  invaluable. 
During  the  next  two  years  there  was  something 
of  a  lull  in  the  political  excitement;  Mr.  Adams 
resigned  his  place  in  the  legislature  and  moved  his 
residence  to  Braintree,  still  keeping  his  office  in 
Boston. 

In  the  summer  of  1772  the  British  government 
ventured  upon  an  act  that  went  further  than  any 
thing  which  had  yet  occurred  toward  driving  the 
colonies  into  rebellion.  It  was  ordered  that  all  the 
Massachusetts  judges  holding  their  places  during 
the  king's  pleasure  should  henceforth  have  their 
salaries  paid  by  the  crown  and  not  by  the  colony. 


JOHN    ADAMS  69 

This  act,  which  aimed  directly  at  the  independence 
of  the  judiciary,  aroused  intense  indignation,  not 
only  in  Massachusetts,  but  in  the  other  colonies, 
which  felt  their  liberties  threatened  by  such  a 
measure.  It  called  forth  from  Mr.  Adams  a  series 
of  powerful  articles,  which  have  been  republished 
in  the  3d  volume  of  his  collected  works.  About 
this  time  he  was  chosen  member  of  the  council,  but 
the  choice  was  negatived  by  Gov.  Hutchinson. 
The  five  acts  of  parliament  in  April,  1774,  includ 
ing  the  regulating  act  and  the  Boston  port  bill, 
led  to  the  calling  of  the  first  continental  congress, 
to  which  Mr.  Adams  was  chosen  as  one  of  the  five 
delegates  from  Massachusetts.  The  resolutions 
passed  by  this  congress  on  the  subject  of  colonial 
rights  were  drafted  by  him,  and  his  diary  and  let 
ters  contain  a  vivid  account  of  some  of  the  pro 
ceedings.  On  his  return  to  Braintree  he  was  chosen 
a  member  of  the  revolutionary  provincial  congress 
of  Massachusetts,  then  assembled  at  Concord.  This 
revolutionary  body  had  already  seized  the  revenues 
of  the  colony,  appointed  a  committee  of  safety, 
and  begun  to  organize  an  army  and  collect  arms 
and  ammunition.  During  the  following  winter  the 
views  of  the  loyalist  party  were  set  forth  with  great 
ability  and  eloquence  in  a  series  of  newspaper 
articles  by  Daniel  Leonard,  under  the  signature  of 
"Massachusettensis."  He  was  answered  most 
effectively  by  Mr.  Adams,  whose  articles,  signed 


70       LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

"Novanglus,"  appeared  weekly  in  the  Boston 
"Gazette"  until  the  battle  of  Lexington.  The  last 
of  these  articles,  which  was  actually  in  type  in  that 
wild  week,  was  not  published.  The  series,  which 
has  been  reprinted  in  the  4th  volume  of  Mr. 
Adams's  works,  contains  a  valuable  review  of  the 
policy  of  Bernard  and  Hutchinson,  and  a  power 
ful  statement  of  the  rights  of  the  colonies. 

In  the  second  continental  congress,  which  assem 
bled  May  10,  Mr.  Adams  played  a  very  important 
part.  Of  all  the  delegates  present  he  was  probably 
the  only  one,  except  his  cousin,  Samuel  Adams, 
who  was  convinced  that  matters  had  gone  too  far 
for  any  reconciliation  with  the  mother  country,  and 
that  there  was  no  use  in  sending  any  more  petitions 
to  the  king.  As  there  was  a  strong  prejudice 
against  Massachusetts  on  the  part  of  the  middle 
and  southern  colonies,  it  was  desirable  that  her  dele 
gates  should  avoid  all  appearance  of  undue  haste 
in  precipitating  an  armed  conflict.  Nevertheless, 
the  circumstances  under  which  an  army  of  16,000 
New  England  men  had  been  gathered  to  besiege 
the  British  in  Boston  were  such  as  to  make  it  seem 
advisable  for  the  congress  to  adopt  it  as  a  conti 
nental  army;  and  here  John  Adams  did  the  second 
notable  deed  of  his  career.  He  proposed  Washing 
ton  for  the  chief  command  of  this  army,  and  thus, 
by  putting  Virginia  in  the  foreground,  succeeded 
in  committing  that  great  colony  to  a  course  of 


JOHN    ADAMS  71 

action  calculated  to  end  in  independence.  This 
move  not  only  put  the  army  in  charge  of  the  only 
commander  capable  of  winning  independence  for 
the  American  people  in  the  field,  but  its  political 
importance  was  great  and  obvious.  Afterward  in 
some  dark  moments  of  the  revolutionary  war,  Mr. 
Adams  seems  almost  to  have  regretted  his  part  in 
this  selection  of  a  commander.  He  understood 
little  or  nothing  of  military  affairs,  and  was  in 
capable  of  appreciating  General  Washington's 
transcendent  ability.  The  results  of  the  war,  how 
ever,  justified  in  every  respect  his  action  in  the 
second  continental  congress. 

During  the  summer  recess  taken  by  congress, 
Mr.  Adams  sat  as  a  member  of  the  Massachusetts 
council,  which  declared  the  office  of  governor 
vacant  and  assumed  executive  authority.  Under 
the  new  provisional  government  of  Massachusetts, 
Mr.  Adams  was  made  chief  justice,  but  never  took 
his  seat,  as  continental  affairs  more  pressingly  de 
manded  his  attention.  He  was  always  loquacious, 
often  too  ready  to  express  his  opinions,  whether 
with  tongue  or  pen,  and  this  trait  got  him  more 
than  once  into  trouble,  especially  as  he  was  inclined 
to  be  sharp  and  censorious.  For  John  Dickinson, 
the  leader  of  the  moderate  and  temporizing  party 
in  congress,  who  had  just  prevailed  upon  that  body 
to  send  another  petition  to  the  king,  he  seems  to 
have  entertained  at  this  time  no  very  high  regard, 


72       LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

and  he  gave  vent  to  some  contemptuous  expressions 
in  a  confidential  letter,  which  was  captured  by  the 
British  and  published.  This  led  to  a  quarrel  with 
Dickinson,  and  made  Mr.  Adams  very  unpopular 
in  Philadelphia.  When  congress  reassembled  in 
the  autumn,  Mr.  Adams,  as  member  of  a  commit 
tee  for  fitting  out  cruisers,  drew  up  a  body  of  regu 
lations,  which  came  to  form  the  basis  of  the 
American  naval  code.  The  royal  governor,  Sir 
John  Wentworth,  fled  from  New  Hampshire  about 
this  time,  and  the  people  sought  the  advice  of 
congress  as  to  the  form  of  government  which  it 
should  seem  most  advisable  to  adopt.  Similar 
applications  presently  came  from  South  Carolina 
and  Virginia.  Mr.  Adams  prevailed  upon  congress 
to  recommend  to  these  colonies  to  form  for  them 
selves  new  governments  based  entirely  upon  popu 
lar  suffrage ;  and  about  the  same  time  he  published 
a  pamphlet  entitled  "  Thoughts  on  Government, 
Applicable  to  the  Present  State  of  the  American 
Colonies." 

By  the  spring  of  1776  the  popular  feeling  had 
become  so  strongly  inclined  toward  independence 
that,  on  May  15,  Mr.  Adams  was  able  to  carry 
through  congress  a  resolution  that  all  the  colonies 
should  be  invited  to  form  independent  govern 
ments.  In  the  preamble  to  this  resolution  it  was 
declared  that  the  American  people  could  no  longer 
conscientiously  take  oath  to  support  any  govern- 


JOHN    ADAMS  73 

ment  deriving  its  authority  from  the  crown;  all 
such  governments  must  now  be  suppressed,  since 
the  king  had  withdrawn  his  protection  from  the 
inhabitants  of  the  united  colonies.  Like  the  famous 
preamble  to  Townshend's  act  of  1767,  this  Adams 
preamble  contained  within  itself  the  gist  of  the 
whole  matter.  To  adopt  it  was  to  cross  the  Rubi 
con,  and  it  gave  rise  to  a  hot  debate  in  congress. 
Against  the  opposition  of  most  of  the  delegates 
from  the  middle  states  the  resolution  was  finally 
carried;  "and  now,"  exclaimed  Mr.  Adams,  "the 
Gordian  knot  is  cut."  Events  came  quickly  to 
maturity.  On  June  7  the  declaration  of  independ 
ence  was  moved  by  Richard  Henry  Lee,  of  Vir 
ginia,  and  seconded  by  John  Adams.  The  motion 
was  allowed  to  lie  on  the  table  for  three  weeks,  in 
order  to  hear  from  the  colonies  of  Connecticut, 
New  Hampshire,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Dela 
ware,  Maryland,  and  New  York,  which  had  not 
yet  declared  their  position  with  regard  to  independ 
ence.  Meanwhile  three  committees  were  appointed, 
one  on  a  declaration  of  independence,  a  second  on 
confederation,  and  a  third  on  foreign  relations ;  and 
Mr.  Adams  was  a  member  of  the  first  and  third  of 
these  committees.  On  July  1  Mr.  Lee's  motion 
was  taken  up  by  congress  sitting  as  a  committee 
of  the  whole ;  and,  as  Mr.  Lee  was  absent,  the  task 
of  defending  it  devolved  upon  Mr.  Adams,  who, 
as  usual,  was  opposed  by  Dickinson.  Adams's 


74      LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

speech  on  that  occasion  was  probably  the  finest  he 
ever  delivered.  Jefferson  called  him  "the  colossus 
of  that  debate";  and  indeed  his  labors  in  bringing 
about  the  declaration  of  independence  must  be  con 
sidered  as  the  third  signal  event  of  his  career. 

On  June  12  congress  established  a  board  of  war 
and  ordnance,  with  Mr.  Adams  for  its  chairman, 
and  he  discharged  the  arduous  duties  of  this  office 
until  after  the  surrender  of  Burgoyne.    After  the 
battle  of  Long  Island,  Lord  Howe  sent  the  cap 
tured  Gen.  Sullivan  to  Philadelphia,  soliciting  a 
conference   with   some    of   the   members   of   the 
congress.     Adams   opposed  the  conference,   and 
with  characteristic  petulance  alluded  to  the  unfor 
tunate  Sullivan  as  a  decoy  duck  who  had  much  bet 
ter  have  been  shot  in  the  battle  than  sent  on  such  a 
business.    Congress,  however,  consented  to  the  con 
ference,  and  Adams  was  chosen  as  a  commissioner, 
along  with  Franklin  and  Rutledge.     Toward  the 
end  of  the  year  1777  Mr.  Adams  was  appointed  to 
supersede  Silas  Deane  as  commissioner  to  France. 
He  sailed  February  12,  1778,  in  the  frigate  "Bos 
ton,"  and  after  a  stormy  passage,  in  which  he  ran 
no  little  risk  of  capture  by  British  cruisers,  he 
landed  at  Bordeaux,  and  reached  Paris  on  April  8. 
Long  before  his  arrival  the  alliance  with  France 
had  been  consummated.     He  found  a  wretched 
state  of  things  in  Paris,  our  three  commissioners 
there  at  loggerheads,  one  of  them  dabbling  in  the 


JOHN   ADAMS  75 

British  funds  and  making  a  fortune  by  privateer 
ing,  while  the  public  accounts  were  kept  in  the 
laxest  manner.  All  sorts  of  agents  were  drawing 
bills  upon  the  United  States,  and  commanders  of 
war  vessels  were  setting  up  their  claims  for  ex 
penses  and  supplies  that  had  never  been  ordered. 

Mr.  Adams,  whose  habits  of  business  were  ex 
tremely  strict  and  methodical,  was  shocked  at  this 
confusion,  and  he  took  hold  of  the  matter  with 
such  vigor  as  to  put  an  end  to  it.  He  also  recom 
mended  that  the  representation  of  the  United 
States  at  the  French  court  should  be  intrusted  to 
a  single  minister  instead  of  three  commissioners. 
As  a  result  of  this  advice,  Franklin  was  retained 
at  Paris,  Arthur  Lee  was  sent  to  Madrid,  and 
Adams,  being  left  without  any  instructions,  re 
turned  to  America,  reaching  Boston  August  2, 
1779.  He  came  home  with  a  curious  theory  of  the 
decadence  of  Great  Britain,  which  he  had  learned 
in  France,  and  which  serves  well  to  illustrate  the 
mood  in  which  France  had  undertaken  to  assist 
the  United  States.  England,  he  said,  "loses  every 
day  her  consideration,  and  runs  toward  her  ruin. 
Her  riches,  in  which  her  power  consisted,  she  has 
lost  with  us  and  never  can  regain.  She  resembles 
the  melancholy  spectacle  of  a  great,  wide-spreading 
tree  that  has  been  girdled  at  the  root."  Such 
absurd  notions  were  quite  commonly  entertained 
at  that  time  on  the  continent  of  Europe,  and  such 


76      LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

calamities  were  seriously  dreaded  by  many  English 
men  in  the  event  of  the  success  of  the  Americans. 

Immediately  on  reaching  home  Mr.  Adams  was 
chosen  delegate  from  Braintree  to  the  convention 
for  framing  a  new  constitution  for  Massachusetts; 
but  before  the  work  of  the  convention  was  finished 
he  was  appointed  commissioner  to  treat  for  peace 
with  Great  Britain,  and  sailed  for  France  in  the 
same  French  frigate  in  which  he  had  come  home. 
But  Lord  North's  government  was  not  ready  to 
make  peace,  and,  moreover,  Count  Vergennes  con 
trived  to  prevent  Adams  from  making  any  official 
communication  to  Great  Britain  of  the  extent  of 
his  powers.  During  Adams's  stay  in  Paris  a 
mutual  dislike  and  distrust  grew  up  between  him 
self  and  Vergennes.  The  latter  feared  that  if 
negotiations  were  to  begin  between  the  British  gov 
ernment  and  the  United  States,  they  might  lead 
to  a  reconciliation  and  reunion  of  the  two  branches 
of  the  English  race,  and  thus  ward  off  that  de 
cadence  of  England  for  which  France  was  so 
eagerly  hoping. 

On  the  other  hand,  Adams  quite  correctly  be 
lieved  that  it  was  the  intention  of  Vergennes  to 
sacrifice  the  interests  of  the  Americans,  especially 
as  concerned  with  the  Newfoundland  fisheries  and 
the  territory  between  the  Alleghanies  and  the  Mis 
sissippi,  in  favor  of  Spain,  with  which  country 
France  was  then  in  close  alliance.  Americans  must 


JOHN    ADAMS  77 

always  owe  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  Mr.  Adams  for 
the  clear-sightedness  with  which  he  thus  read  the 
designs  of  Vergennes  and  estimated  at  its  true 
value  the  purely  selfish  intervention  of  France  in 
behalf  of  the  United  States.  This  clearness  of 
insight  was  soon  to  bear  good  fruit  in  the  manage 
ment  of  the  treaty  of  1783.  For  the  present, 
Adams  found  himself  uncomfortable  in  Paris,  as 
his  too  ready  tongue  wrought  unpleasantness  both 
with  Vergennes  and  with  Franklin,  who  was  too 
much  under  the  French  minister's  influence.  On 
his  first  arrival  in  Paris  society  there  had  been 
greatly  excited  about  him,  as  it  was  supposed  that 
he  was  "the  famous  Mr.  Adams"  who  had  ordered 
the  British  troops  out  of  Boston  in  March,  1770, 
and  had  thrown  down  the  glove  of  defiance  to 
George  III.  on  the  great  day  of  the  Boston  tea- 
party.  When  he  explained  that  he  was  only  a 
cousin  of  that  grand  and  picturesque  personage, 
he  found  that  fashionable  society  thenceforth  took 
less  interest  in  him. 

In  the  summer  of  1780  Mr.  Adams  was  charged 
by  congress  with  the  business  of  negotiating  a 
Dutch  loan.  In  order  to  give  the  good  people  of 
Holland  some  correct  ideas  as  to  American  affairs, 
he  published  a  number  of  articles  in  the  Leyden 
"Gazette"  and  in  a  magazine  entitled  "La  politique 
hollandaise" ;  also  "Twenty-six  Letters  upon  Inter 
esting  Subjects  respecting  the  Revolution  in 


78      LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

America,"  now  reprinted  in  the  7th  volume  of 
his  works.  Soon  after  Adams's  arrival  in  Holland, 
England  declared  war  against  the  Dutch,  osten 
sibly  because  of  a  proposed  treaty  of  commerce 
with  the  United  States  in  which  the  burgomaster 
of  Amsterdam  was  implicated  with  Henry  Laurens, 
but  really  because  Holland  had  joined  the  league 
headed  by  the  empress  Catharine  of  Russia,  de 
signed  to  protect  the  commerce  of  neutral  nations 
and  known  as  the  armed  neutrality.  Laurens  had 
been  sent  out  by  congress  as  minister  to  Holland; 
but,  as  he  had  been  captured  by  a  British  cruiser 
and  taken  to  the  tower  of  London,  Mr.  Adams  was 
appointed  minister  in  his  place.  His  first  duty  was 
to  sign,  as  representing  the  United  States,  the 
articles  of  the  armed  neutrality.  Before  he  had 
got  any  further,  indeed  before  he  had  been  recog 
nized  as  minister  by  the  Dutch  government,  he  was 
called  back  to  Paris,  in  July,  1781,  in  order  to  be 
ready  to  enter  upon  negotiations  for  peace  with 
the  British  government.  Russia  and  Austria  had 
volunteered  their  services  as  mediators  between 
George  III.  and  the  Americans;  but  Lord  North's 
government  rejected  the  offer,  so  that  Mr.  Adams 
had  his  journey  for  nothing,  and  presently  went 
back  to  Holland.  His  first  and  most  arduous  task 
was  to  persuade  the  Dutch  government  to  recog 
nize  him  as  minister  from  the  independent  United 
States.  In  this  he  was  covertly  opposed  by  Ver- 


JOHN    ADAMS  79 

gennes,  who  wished  the  Americans  to  feel  ex 
clusively  dependent  upon  France,  and  to  have  no 
other  friendships  or  alliances.  From  first  to  last 
the  aid  extended  by  France  to  the  Americans  in 
the  revolutionary  war  was  purely  selfish.  That 
despotic  government  wished  no  good  to  a  people 
struggling  to  preserve  the  immemorial  principles 
of  English  liberty,  and  the  policy  of  Vergennes 
was  to  extend  just  enough  aid  to  us  to  enable  us 
to  prolong  the  war,  so  that  colonies  and  mother 
country  might  alike  be  weakened.  When  he  pre 
tended  to  be  the  disinterested  friend  of  the  Ameri 
cans,  he  professed  to  be  under  the  influence  of  senti 
ments  that  he  did  not  really  feel;  and  he  thus  suc 
ceeded  in  winning  from  congress  a  confidence  to 
which  he  was  in  no  wise  entitled.  But  he  could  not 
hoodwink  John  Adams,  who  wrote  home  that  the 
duke  de  la  Vauguyon,  the  French  ambassador  at 
The  Hague,  was  doing  everything  in  his  power  to 
obstruct  the  progress  of  the  negotiations;  and  in 
this,  Adams  correctly  inferred,  he  was  acting  under 
secret  instructions  from  Vergennes.  As  a  diplo 
matist  Adams  was  in  a  certain  sense  Napoleonic; 
he  introduced  new  and  strange  methods  of  war 
fare,  which  disconcerted  the  perfidious  intriguers 
of  the  old  school,  of  which  Vergennes  and  Talley 
rand  were  typical  examples.  Instead  of  beating 
about  the  bush  and  seeking  to  foil  trickery  by 
trickery  (a  business  in  which  the  wily  Frenchman 


80      LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

would  doubtless  have  proved  more  than  his  match) , 
he  went  straight  to  the  duke  de  la  Vauguyon  and 
bluntly  told  him  that  he  saw  plainly  what  he  was 
up  to  and  that  it  was  of  no  use,  since  "no  advice 
of  his  or  of  the  count  de  Vergennes,  nor  even  a 
requisition  from  the  king,  should  restrain  me." 
The  duke  saw  that  Adams  meant  exactly  what  he 
said,  and,  finding  that  it  was  useless  to  oppose  the 
negotiations,  "fell  in  with  me,  in  order  to  give  the 
air  of  French  influence"  to  them.  Events  worked 
steadily  and  rapidly  in  Adams's  favor.  The 
plunder  of  St.  Eustatius  early  in  1781  had  raised 
the  wrath  of  the  Dutch  against  Great  Britain  to 
fever  heat. 

In  November  came  tidings  of  the  surrender  of 
Lord  Cornwallis.  By  this  time  Adams  had  pub 
lished  so  many  articles  as  to  have  given  the  Dutch 
some  idea  as  to  what  sort  of  people  the  Americans 
were.  He  had  some  months  before  presented  a 
petition  to  the  states  general,  asking  them  to  recog 
nize  him  as  minister  from  an  independent  nation. 
With  his  wonted  boldness  he  now  demanded  a  plain 
and  unambiguous  answer  to  this  petition,  and  fol 
lowed  up  the  demand  by  visiting  the  representa 
tives  of  the  several  cities  in  person  and  arguing  his 
case.  As  the  reward  of  this  persistent  energy,  Mr. 
Adams  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  the  independence 
of  the  United  States  formally  recognized  by  Hol 
land  on  April  19,  1782.  This  success  was  vigor- 


JOHN    ADAMS  81 

ously  followed  up.  A  Dutch  loan  of  $2,000,000 
was  soon  negotiated,  and  on  October  7  a  treaty 
of  amity  and  commerce,  the  second  which  was  rati 
fied  with  the  United  States  as  an  independent 
nation,  was  signed  at  The  Hague.  This  work  in 
Holland  was  the  fourth  signal  event  in  John 
Adams's  career,  and,  in  view  of  the  many  obstacles 
overcome,  he  was  himself  in  the  habit  of  referring 
to  it  as  the  greatest  triumph  of  his  life.  "One 
thing,  thank  God!  is  certain,"  he  wrote;  "I  have 
planted  the  American  standard  at  The  Hague. 
There  let  it  wave  and  fly  in  triumph  over  Sir 
Joseph  Yorke  and  British  pride.  I  shall  look  down 
upon  the  flag-staff  with  pleasure  from  the  other 
world." 

Mr.  Adams  had  hardly  time  to  finish  this  work 
when  his  presence  was  required  in  Paris.  Negotia 
tions  for  peace  with  Great  Britain  had  begun  some 
time  before  in  conversations  between  Franklin  and 
Richard  Oswald,  a  gentleman  whom  Lord  Shel- 
burne  had  sent  to  Paris  for  the  purpose.  One 
British  ministry  had  already  been  wrecked  through 
these  negotiations,  and  affairs  had  dragged  along 
slowly  amid  endless  difficulties..  The  situation  was 
one  of  the  most  complicated  in  the  history  of 
diplomacy.  France  was  in  alliance  at  once  with 
Spain  and  with  the  United  States,  and  her  treaty 
obligations  to  the  one  were  in  some  respects  incon 
sistent  with  her  treaty  obligations  to  the  other. 


82       LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

The  feeling  of  Spain  toward  the  United  States 
was  intensely  hostile,  and  the  French  government 
was  much  more  in  sympathy  with  the  former  than 
with  the  latter.  On  the  other  hand,  the  new  British 
government  w  is  not  ill-disposed  toward  the  Ameri 
cans,  and  was  extremely  ready  to  make  liberal  con 
cessions  to  them  for  the  sake  of  thwarting  the 
schemes  of  France.  In  the  background  stood 
George  III.,  surly  and  irreconcilable,  hoping  that 
the  negotiations  would  fail;  and  amid  these  diffi 
culties  they  doubtless  would  have  failed  had  not 
all  the  parties  by  this  time  had  a  surfeit  of  blood 
shed. 

The  designs  of  the  French  government  were  first 
suspected  by  John  Jay,  soon  after  his  arrival  in 
Paris.  He  found  that  Vergennes  was  sending  a 
secret  emissary  to  Lord  Shelburne  under  an 
assumed  name;  he  ascertained  that  the  right  of  the 
United  States  to  the  Mississippi  valley  was  to  be 
denied;  and  he  got  hold  of  a  despatch  from  Mar- 
bois,  the  French  secretary  of  legation  at  Phila 
delphia,  to  Vergennes,  opposing  the  American 
claim  to  the  Newfoundland  fisheries.  As  soon  as 
Jay  learned  these  facts  he  proceeded,  without  the 
knowledge  of  Franklin,  to  take  steps  toward  a 
separate  negotiation  between  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States.  When  Adams  arrived  in  Paris, 
October  26,  he  coincided  with  Jay's  views,  and  the 
two  together  overruled  Franklin.  Mr.  Adams's  be- 


JOHN    ADAMS  83 

havior  at  this  time  was  quite  characteristic.  It  is 
said  that  he  left  Vergennes  to  learn  of  his  arrival 
through  the  newspapers.  It  was  certainly  some 
time  before  he  called  upon  him,  and  he  took 
occasion,  besides,  to  express  his  opinions  about  re 
publics  and  monarchies  in  terms  that  courtly 
Frenchman  thought  very  rude.  Adams  agreed 
with  Jay  that  Vergennes  should  be  kept  as  far  as 
possible  in  the  dark  until  everything  was  completed, 
and  so  the  negotiation  with  Great  Britain  went  on 
separately.  The  annals  of  modern  diplomacy  have 
afforded  few  stranger  spectacles.  With  the  indis 
pensable  aid  of  France  we  had  just  got  the  better 
of  England  in  fight,  and  now  we  proceeded 
amicably  to  divide  territory  and  commercial  privi 
leges  with  the  enemy,  and  to  make  arrangements 
in  which  our  not  too  friendly  ally  was  virtually 
ignored.  In  this  way  the  United  States  secured 
the  Mississippi  Valley,  and  a  share  in  the  New 
foundland  fisheries,  not  as  a  privilege  but  as  a  right, 
the  latter  result  being  mainly  due  to  the  persistence 
of  Mr.  Adams.  The  point  upon  which  the  British 
Commissioners  most  strongly  insisted  was  the  com 
pensation  of  the  American  loyalists  for  the  hard 
ships  they  had  suffered  during  the  war;  but  this 
the  American  commissioners  resolutely  refused. 
The  most  they  could  be  prevailed  upon  to  allow  was 
the  insertion  in  the  treaty  of  a  clause  to  the  effect 
that  congress  should  recommend  to  the  several  state 


84       LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

governments  to  reconsider  their  laws  against  the 
tories  and  to  give  these  unfortunate  persons  a 
chance  to  recover  their  property. 

In  the  treaty,  as  finally  arranged,  all  the  disputed 
points  were  settled  in  favor  of  the  Americans ;  and, 
the  United  States  being  thus  virtually  detached 
from  the  alliance,  the  British  government  was 
enabled  to  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the  demands  of 
France  and  Spain  for  the  surrender  of  Gibraltar. 
Vergennes  was  outgeneralled  at  every  turn.  On 
the  part  of  the  Americans  the  treaty  of  1783  de 
serves  to  be  ranked  as  one  of  the  most  brilliant 
triumphs  of  modern  diplomacy.  Its  success  was 
about  equally  due  to  Adams  and  to  Jay,  whose 
courage  in  the  affair  was  equal  to  their  skill,  for 
they  took  it  upon  themselves  to  disregard  the  ex 
plicit  instructions  of  congress.  Ever  since  March, 
1781,  Vergennes  had  been  intriguing  with  congress 
through  his  minister  at  Philadelphia,  the  chevalier 
de  la  Luzerne.  First  he  had  tried  to  get  Mr. 
Adams  recalled  to  America.  Failing  in  this,  he 
had  played  his  part  with  such  dexterous  persistence 
as  to  prevail  upon  congress  to  send  most  pusillani 
mous  instructions  to  its  peace  commissioners.  They 
were  instructed  to  undertake  nothing  whatever  in 
the  negotiations  without  the  knowledge  and  con 
currence  of  "the  ministers  of  our  generous  ally, 
the  king  of  France,"  that  is  to  say,  of  the  count  de 
Vergennes ;  and  they  were  to  govern  themselves  en- 


JOHN    ADAMS  85 

tirely  by  his  advice  and  opinion.  Franklin  would 
have  followed  these  instructions;  Adams  and  Jay 
deliberately  disobeyed  them,  and  earned  the  grati 
tude  of  their  countrymen  for  all  coming  time.  For 
Adams's  share  in  this  grand  achievement  it  must 
certainly  be  cited  as  the  fifth  signal  event  in  his 
career. 

By  this  time  he  had  become  excessively  home 
sick,  and  as  soon  as  the  treaty  was  arranged  he 
asked  leave  to  resign  his  commissions  and  return  to 
America.  He  declared  he  would  rather  be  "cart 
ing  street-dust  and  marsh-mud"  than  waiting 
where  he  was.  But  business  would  not  let  him  go. 
In  September,  1783,  he  was  commissioned,  along 
with  Franklin  and  Jay,  to  negotiate  a  commercial 
treaty  with  Great  Britain.  A  sudden  and  violent 
fever  prostrated  him  for  several  weeks,  after  which 
he  visited  London  and  Bath.  Before  he  had  fully 
recovered  his  health  he  learned  that  his  presence  was 
required  in  Holland.  In  those  days,  when  we  lived 
under  the  articles  of  confederation,  and  congress 
found  it  impossible  to  raise  money  enough  to  meet 
its  current  expenses,  it  was  by  no  means  unusual 
for  the  superintendent  of  finance  to  draw  upon  our 
foreign  ministers  and  then  sell  the  drafts  for  cash. 
This  was  done  again  and  again,  when  there  was  not 
the  smallest  ground  for  supposing  that  the  minister 
upon  whom  the  draft  was  made  would  have  any 
funds  wherewith  to  meet  it.  It  was  part  of  his 


86      LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

duty  as  envoy  to  go  and  beg  the  money.  Early  in 
the  winter  Mr.  Adams  learned  that  drafts  upon 
him  had  been  presented  to  his  bankers  in  Amster 
dam  to  the  amount  of  more  than  a  million  florins. 
Less  than  half  a  million  florins  were  on  hand  to 
meet  these  demands,  and,  unless  something  were 
done  at  once,  the  greater  part  of  this  paper  would 
go  back  to  America  protested.  Mr.  Adams  lost  not 
a  moment  in  starting  for  Holland,  but  he  was  de 
layed  by  a  succession  of  terrible  storms  on  the 
German  ocean,  and  it  was  only  after  fifty-four 
days  of  difficulty  and  danger  that  he  reached 
Amsterdam.  The  bankers  had  contrived  to  keep 
the  drafts  from  going  to  protest,  but  news  of  the 
bickerings  between  the  thirteen  states  had  reached 
Holland.  It  was  believed  that  the  new  nation  was 
going  to  pieces,  and  the  regency  of  Amsterdam 
had  no  money  to  lend  it.  The  promise  of  the 
American  government  was  not  regarded  as  valid 
security  for  a  sum  equivalent  to  about  $300,000. 
Adams  was  obliged  to  apply  to  professional 
usurers,  from  whom,  after  more  humiliating  per 
plexity,  he  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  loan  at  exorbi 
tant  interest.  In  the  meantime  he  had  been  ap 
pointed  commissioner,  along  with  Franklin  and 
Jefferson,  for  the  general  purpose  of  negotiating 
commercial  treaties  with  foreign  powers.  As  his 
return  to  America  was  thus  indefinitely  postponed, 
he  sent  for  his  wife,  with  their  only  daughter  and 


JOHN    ADAMS  87 

youngest  son,  to  come  and  join  him  in  France, 
where  the  two  elder  sons  were  already  with  him. 
In  the  summer  of  1784  the  family  was  thus  re 
united,  and  began  housekeeping  at  Auteuil,  near 
Paris. 

A  treaty  was  successfully  negotiated  with 
Prussia,  but,  before  it  was  ready  to  be  signed,  Mr. 
Adams  was  appointed  minister  to  the  court  of  St. 
James,  and  arrived  in  London  in  May,  1785.  He 
was  at  first  politely  received  by  George  III.,  upon 
whom  his  bluff  and  fearless  dignity  of  manner 
made  a  considerable  impression.  His  stay  in  Eng 
land  was,  however,  far  from  pleasant.  The  king 
came  to  treat  him  with  coldness,  sometimes  with 
rudeness,  and  the  royal  example  was  followed  by 
fashionable  society.  The  American  government 
was  losing  credit  at  home  and  abroad.  It  was 
unable  to  fulfill  its  treaty  engagements  as  to  the 
payment  of  private  debts  due  to  British  creditors, 
and  as  to  the  protection  of  the  loyalists.  The 
British  government,  in  retaliation,  refused  to  sur 
render  the  western  posts  of  Ogdensburg,  Oswego, 
Niagara,  Erie,  Sandusky,  Detroit,  and  Mackinaw, 
which  by  the  treaty  were  to  be  promptly  given  up 
to  the  United  States.  Still  more,  it  refused  to 
make  any  treaty  of  commerce  with  the  United 
States,  and  neglected  to  send  any  minister  to  rep 
resent  Great  Britain  in  this  country.  It  was  gen 
erally  supposed  in  Europe  that  the  American  gov- 


88      LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

eminent  would  presently  come  to  an  end  in  general 
anarchy  and  bloodshed;  and  it  was  believed  by 
George  III.  and  the  narrow-minded  politicians, 
such  as  Lord  Sheffield,  upon  whose  cooperation  he 
relied,  that,  if  sufficient  obstacles  could  be  thrown 
in  the  way  of  American  commerce  to  cause  serious 
distress  in  this  country,  the  United  States  would 
repent  of  their  independence  and  come  straggling 
back,  one  after  another,  to  their  old  allegiance. 
Under  such  circumstances  it  was  impossible  for 
Mr.  Adams  to  accomplish  much  as  minister  in  Eng 
land.  During  his  stay  there  he  wrote  his  "Defence 
of  the  American  Constitutions,"  a  work  which 
afterward  subjected  him  at  home  to  ridiculous 
charges  of  monarchical  and  anti-republican  sym 
pathies.  The  object  of  the  book  was  to  set  forth 
the  advantages  of  a  division  of  the  powers  of  gov 
ernment,  and  especially  of  the  legislative  body,  as 
opposed  to  the  scheme  of  a  single  legislative  cham 
ber,  which  was  advocated  by  many  writers  on  the 
continent  of  Europe.  The  argument  is  encum 
bered  by  needlessly  long  and  sometimes  hardly  rele 
vant  discussions  on  the  history  of  the  Italian 
republics. 

Finding  the  British  government  utterly  stub 
born  and  impracticable,  Mr.  Adams  asked  to  be 
recalled,  and  his  request  was  granted  in  February, 
1788.  For  the  "patriotism,  perseverance,  integrity, 
and  diligence"  displayed  in  his  ten  years  of  service 


JOHN    ADAMS  89 

abroad  he  received  the  public  thanks  of  congress. 
He  had  no  sooner  reached  home  than  he  was  elected 
a  delegate  from  Massachusetts  to  the  moribund 
continental  congress,  but  that  body  expired  before 
he  had  taken  his  seat  in  it.  During  the  summer 
the  ratification  of  the  new  constitution  was  so  far 
completed  that  it  could  be  put  into  operation,  and 
public  attention  was  absorbed  in  the  work  of 
organizing  the  new  government.  As  Washington 
was  unanimously  selected  for  the  office  of  presi 
dent,  it  was  natural  that  the  vice-president  should 
be  taken  from  Massachusetts.  The  candidates  for 
the  presidency  and  vice-presidency  were  voted  for 
without  any  separate  specification,  the  second  office 
falling  to  the  candidate  who  obtained  the  second 
highest  number  of  votes  in  the  electoral  college. 
Of  the  69  electoral  votes,  all  were  registered  for 
Washington,  34  for  John  Adams,  who  stood 
second  on  the  list ;  the  other  35  votes  were  scattered 
among  a  number  of  candidates.  Adams  was  some 
what  chagrined  at  this  marked  preference  shown 
for  Washington.  His  chief  foible  was  enormous 
personal  vanity,  besides  which  he  was  much  better 
fitted  by  temperament  and  training  to  appreciate 
the  kind  of  work  that  he  had  himself  done  than  the 
military  work  by  which  Washington  had  won  inde 
pendence  for  the  United  States.  He  never  could 
quite  understand  how  or  why  the  services  rendered 


90       LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

by  Washington  were  so  much  more  important  than 
his  own. 

The  office  of  vice-president  was  then  more  highly 
esteemed  than  it  afterward  came  to  be,  but  it  was 
hardly  suited  to  a  man  of  Mr.  Adams's  vigorous 
and  aggressive  temper.  In  one  respect,  however, 
he  performed  a  more  important  part  while  holding 
that  office  than  any  of  his  successors.  In  the  earlier 
sessions  of  the  senate  there  was  hot  debate  over  the 
vigorous  measures  by  which  Washington's  adminis 
tration  was  seeking  to  reestablish  American  credit 
and  enlist  the  conservative  interests  of  the  wealthier 
citizens  in  behalf  of  the  stability  of  the  govern 
ment.  These  measures  were  for  the  most  part 
opposed  by  the  persons  who  were  rapidly  becom 
ing  organized  under  Jefferson's  leadership  into  the 
republican  party,  the  opposition  being  mainly  due 
to  dread  of  the  possible  evil  consequences  that 
might  flow  from  too  great  an  increase  of  power  in 
the  federal  government.  In  these  debates  the 
senate  was  very  evenly  divided,  and  Mr.  Adams, 
as  presiding  officer  of  that  body,  was  often  enabled 
to  decide  the  question  by  his  casting  vote.  In  the 
first  congress  he  gave  as  many  as  twenty  casting 
votes  upon  questions  of  most  vital  importance  to 
the  whole  subsequent  history  of  the  American 
people,  and  on  all  these  occasions  he  supported 
President  Washington's  policy. 

During  Washington's  administration  grew  up 


JOHN    ADAMS  91 

the  division  into  the  two  great  parties  which  have 
remained  to  this  day  in  American  politics — the  one 
known  as  federalist,  afterward  as  whig,  then  as 
republican;  the  other  known  at  first  as  republican 
and  afterward  as  democratic.  John  Adams  was 
by  his  mental  and  moral  constitution  a  federalist. 
He  believed  in  strong  government.  To  the 
opposite  party  he  seemed  much  less  a  democrat 
than  an  aristocrat.  In  one  of  his  essays  he  pro 
voked  great  popular  wrath  by  using  the  phrase  "the 
well-born."  He  knew  very  well  that  in  point  of 
hereditary  capacity  and  advantages  men  are  not 
equal  and  never  will  be.  His  notion  of  democratic 
equality  meant  that  all  men  should  have  equal 
rights  in  the  eye  of  the  law.  There  was  nothing 
of  the  communist  or  leveller  about  him.  He  be 
lieved  in  the  rightful  existence  of  a  governing  class, 
which  ought  to  be  kept  at  the  head  of  affairs ;  and 
he  was  supposed,  probably  with  some  truth,  to  have 
a  predilection  for  etiquette,  titles,  gentlemen-in- 
waiting,  and  such  things.  Such  views  did  not  make 
him  an  aristocrat  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word,  for 
in  nowise  did  he  believe  that  the  right  to  a  place 
in  the  governing  class  should  be  heritable;  it  was 
something  to  be  won  by  personal  merit,  and  should 
not  be  withheld  by  any  artificial  enactments  from 
the  lowliest  of  men,  to  whom  the  chance  of  an  illus 
trious  career  ought  to  be  just  as  much  open  as  to 
"the  well-born." 


92      LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

At  the  same  time  John  Adams  differed  from 
Jefferson  and  from  his  cousin,  Samuel  Adams,  in 
distrusting  the  masses.  All  the  federalist  leaders 
shared  this  feeling  more  or  less,  and  it  presently 
became  the  chief  source  of  weakness  to  the  party. 
The  disagreement  between  John  Adams  and 
Jefferson  was  first  brought  into  prominence  by  the 
breaking  out  of  the  French  revolution.  Mr. 
Adams  expected  little  or  no  good  from  this  move 
ment,  which  was  like  the  American  movement  in 
no  respect  whatever  except  in  being  called  a  revo 
lution.  He  set  forth  his  views  on  this  subject  in 
his  "Discourses  on  Davila,"  which  were  published 
in  a  Philadelphia  newspaper.  Taking  as  his  text 
Davila's  history  of  the  civil  wars  in  France  in  the 
16th  century,  he  argued  powerfully  that  a  pure 
democracy  was  not  the  best  form  of  government, 
but  that  a  certain  mixture  of  the  aristocratic  and 
monarchical  elements  was  necessary  to  the  perma 
nent  maintenance  of  free  government.  Such  a 
mixture  really  exists  in  the  constitution  of  the 
United  States,  and,  in  the  opinion  of  many  able 
thinkers,  constitutes  its  peculiar  excellence  and  the 
best  guarantee  of  its  stability.  These  views  gave 
great  umbrage  to  the  extreme  democrats,  and  in 
the  election  of  1792  they  set  up  George  Clinton, 
of  New  York,  as  a  rival  candidate  for  the  vice- 
presidency;  but  when  the  votes  were  counted 
Adams  had  77,  Clinton  50,  Jefferson  4,  and  Aaron 


JOHN    ADAMS  93 

Burr  1.  During  this  administration  Adams,  by  his 
casting  vote,  defeated  the  attempt  of  the  repub 
licans  to  balk  Jay's  mission  to  England  in  advance 
by  a  resolution  entirely  prohibiting  trade  with  that 
country.  For  a  time  Adams  quite  forgot  his 
jealousy  of  Washington  in  admiration  for  the 
heroic  strength  of  purpose  with  which  he  pursued 
his  policy  of  neutrality  amid  the  furious  efforts 
of  political  partisans  to  drag  the  United  States 
into  a  rash  and  desperate  armed  struggle  in  sup 
port  either  of  France  or  of  England. 

In  1796,  as  Washington  refused  to  serve  for  a 
third  term,  John  Adams  seemed  clearly  marked  out 
as  federalist  candidate  for  the  succession.  Hamil 
ton  and  Jay  were  in  a  certain  sense  his  rivals ;  but 
Jay  was  for  the  moment  unpopular  because  of  the 
famous  treaty  that  he  had  lately  negotiated  with 
England,  and  Hamilton,  although  the  ablest  man 
in  the  federalist  party,  was  still  not  so  conspicuous 
in  the  eyes  of  the  masses  of  voters  as  Adams,  who 
besides  was  surer  than  any  one  else  of  the  indis 
pensable  New  England  vote.  Having  decided 
upon  Adams  as  first  candidate,  it  seemed  desirable 
to  take  the  other  from  a  southern  state,  and  the 
choice  fell  upon  Thomas  Pinckney,  of  South  Caro 
lina,  a  younger  brother  of  Charles  Cotesworth 
Pinckney.  Hamilton  now  began  to  scheme  against 
Mr.  Adams  in  a  manner  not  at  all  to  his  credit. 
He  had  always  been  jealous  of  Adams  because  of 


94      LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

his  stubborn  and  independent  character,  which 
made  it  impossible  for  him  to  be  subservient  to  a 
leader.  There  was  not  room  enough  in  one  political 
party  for  two  such  positive  and  aggressive  charac 
ters.  Already  in  the  election  of  1788  Hamilton 
had  contrived  to  diminish  Adams's  vote  by  persuad 
ing  some  electors  of  the  possible  danger  of  a  unani 
mous  and  therefore  equal  vote  for  him  and  Wash 
ington.  Such  advice  could  not  have  been  candid, 
for  there  was  never  the  smallest  possibility  of  a 
unanimous  vote  for  Mr.  Adams.  Now  in  1796  he 
resorted  to  a  similar  stratagem.  The  federalists 
were  likely  to  win  the  election,  but  had  not  many 
votes  to  spare;  the  contest  was  evidently  going  to 
be  close.  Hamilton  accordingly  urged  the  fed 
eralist  electors,  especially  in  New  England,  to  cast 
all  their  votes  alike  for  Adams  and  Pinckney,  lest 
the  loss  of  a  single  vote  by  either  one  should  give 
the  victory  to  Jefferson,  upon  whom  the  opposite 
party  was  clearly  united.  Should  Adams  and 
Pinckney  receive  an  exactly  equal  number  of  votes, 
it  would  remain  for  a  federalist  congress  to  decide 
which  should  be  president. 

The  result  of  the  election  showed  71  votes  for 
John  Adams,  68  for  Jefferson,  59  for  Pinckney, 
30  for  Burr,  15  for  Samuel  Adams,  and  the  rest 
scattering.  Two  electors  obstinately  persisted  in 
voting  for  Washington.  When  it  appeared  that 
Adams  had  only  three  more  votes  than  Jefferson, 


JOHN    ADAMS  95 

who  secured  the  second  place  instead  of  Pinckney, 
it  seemed  on  the  surface  as  if  Hamilton's  advice 
had  been  sound.  But  from  the  outset  it  had  been 
clear  (and  no  one  knew  it  better  than  Hamilton) 
that  several  southern  federalists  would  withhold 
their  votes  from  Adams  in  order  to  give  the  presi 
dency  to  Pinckney,  always  supposing  that  the  New 
England  electors  could  be  depended  upon  to  vote 
equally  for  both.  The  purpose  of  Hamilton's 
advice  was  to  make  Pinckney  president  and  Adams 
vice-president,  in  opposition  to  the  wishes  of  their 
party.  This  purpose  was  suspected  in  New  Eng 
land,  and  while  some  of  the  southern  federalists 
voted  for  Pinckney  and  Jefferson,  eighteen  New 
Englanders,  in  voting  for  Adams,  withheld  their 
votes  from  Pinckney.  The  result  was  the  election 
of  a  federalist  president  with  a  republican  vice- 
president.  In  case  of  the  death,  disability,  or  re 
moval  of  the  president,  the  administration  would 
fall  into  the  hands  of  the  opposite  party.  Clearly 
a  mode  of  election  that  presented  such  temptations 
to  intrigue,  and  left  so  much  to  accident,  was 
vicious  and  could  not  last  long.  These  proceedings 
gave  rise  to  a  violent  feud  between  John  Adams 
and  Alexander  Hamilton,  which  ended  in  break 
ing  up  the  federalist  party,  and  has  left  a  legacy 
of  bitter  feelings  to  the  many  descendants  of  those 
two  illustrious  men. 

The  presidency  of  John  Adams  was  stormy. 


96      LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

We  were  entering  upon  that  period  when  our  party 
strife  was  determined  rather  by  foreign  than  by 
American    political    issues,    when    England    and 
France,  engaged  in  a  warfare  of  Titans,  took  every 
occasion  to  browbeat  and  insult  us  because  we  were 
supposed  to  be  too  feeble  to  resent  such  treatment. 
The    revolutionary    government    of    France    had 
claimed  that,  in  accordance  with  our  treaty  with 
that  country,  we  were  bound  to  support  her  against 
Great  Britain,  at  least  so  far  as  concerned  the  de 
fence  of  the  French  West  Indies.    The  republican 
party  went  almost  far  enough  in  their  sympathy 
with  the  French  to  concede  these  claims,  which,  if 
admitted  by  our  government,  would  immediately 
have  got  us  into  war  with  England.    On  the  other 
hand,  the  hatred  felt  toward  France  by  the  extreme 
federalists  was  so  bitter  that  any  insult  from  that 
power  was  enough  to  incline  them  to  advocate  war 
against  her  and  in  behalf  of  England.    Washing 
ton,  in  defiance  of  all  popular  clamor,  adhered  to 
a  policy  of  strict  neutrality,  and  in  this  he  was 
resolutely   followed  by  Adams.     The   American 
government  was  thus  obliged  carefully  and  with 
infinite    difficulty   to    steer    between    Scylla    and 
Charybdis  until  the  overthrow  of  Napoleon  and  our 
naval  victories  over  England  in  1812-14  put  an 
end  to  this  humiliating  state  of  things.     Under 
Washington's  administration  Gouverneur  Morris 
had  been  for  some  time  minister  to  France,  but  he 


fa    (H4</£     /£*. 


4 


[Foe-simile  letter  from  John  Adams  to  Judge  William  Cranch] 


JOHN    ADAMS  97 

was  greatly  disliked  by  the  anarchical  group  that 
then  misruled  that  country. 

To  avoid  giving  offence  to  the  French  republic, 
Washington  had  recalled  Morris  and  sent  James 
Monroe  in  his  place,  with  instructions  to  try  to 
reconcile  the  French  to  Jay's  mission  to  England. 
Instead  of  doing  this,  Monroe  encouraged  the 
French  to  hope  that  Jay's  treaty  would  not  be 
ratified,  and  Washington  accordingly  recalled  him 
and  sent  Cotesworth  Pinckney  in  his  place.  En 
raged  at  the  ratification  of  Jay's  treaty,  the  French 
government  not  only  gave  a  brilliant  ovation,  to 
Monroe,  but  refused  to  receive  Pinckney,  ind 
would  not  even  allow  him  to  stay  in  Paris.  At  the 
same  time,  decrees  were  passed  discriminating 
against  American  commerce.  Mr.  Adams  was  no 
sooner  inaugurated  as  president  than  he  called  an 
extra  session  of  congress,  to  consider  how  war  with 
France  should  be  avoided.  It  was  decided  to 
send  a  special  commission  to  France,  consisting 
of  Cotesworth  Pinckney,  John  Marshall,  and 
Elbridge  Gerry.  The  directory  would  not  acknowl 
edge  these  commissioners  and  treat  with  them 
openly ;  but  Talleyrand,  who  was  then  secretary  for 
foreign  affairs,  sent  some  of  his  creatures  to 
intrigue  with  them  behind  the  scenes.  It  was  pro 
posed  that  the  envoys  should  pay  large  sums  of 
money  to  Talleyrand  and  two  or  three  of  the 
directors,  as  bribes,  for  dealing  politely  with  the 


98       LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

United  States  and  refraining  from  locking  up 
American  ships  and  stealing  American  goods. 
When  the  envoys  scornfully  rejected  this  proposal, 
a  new  decree  was  forthwith  issued  against  Ameri 
can  commerce.  The  envoys  drew  up  an  indignant 
remonstrance  which  Gerry  hesitated  to  sign. 
Wearied  with  their  fruitless  efforts,  Marshall  and 
Pinckney  left  Paris.  But,  as  Gerry  was  a  repub 
lican,  Talleyrand  thought  it  worth  while  to  per 
suade  him  to  stay,  hoping  that  he  might  prove 
more  compliant  than  his  colleagues. 

In  March,  1798,  Mr.  Adams  announced  to 
congress  the  failure  of  the  mission,  and  advised 
that  the  preparations  already  begun  should  be  kept 
up  in  view  of  the  war  that  now  seemed  almost 
inevitable.  A  furious  debate  ensued,  which  was 
interrupted  by  a  motion  from  the  federalist  side, 
calling  on  the  president  for  full  copies  of  the 
despatches.  Nothing  could  have  suited  Mr.  Adams 
better.  He  immediately  sent  in  copies  complete  in 
everything  except  that  the  letters  X.,  Y.,  and  Z. 
were  substituted  for  the  names  of  Talleyrand's 
emissaries.  Hence  these  papers  have  ever  since 
been  known  as  the  "X.  Y.  Z.  despatches."  On 
April  8  the  senate  voted  to  publish  these  despatches, 
and  they  aroused  great  excitement  both  in  Europe 
and  in  America.  The  British  government  scattered 
them  broadcast  over  Europe,  to  stir  up  indignation 
against  France.  In  America  a  great  storm  of 


JOHN    ADAMS  99 

wrath  seemed  for  the  moment  to  have  wrecked  the 
republican  party.  Those  who  were  not  converted 
to  federalism  were  for  the  moment  silenced.  From 
all  quarters  came  up  the  war-cry,  "Millions-  for 
defence;' not  one  cent  for  tribute."  A  few  excel 
lent  frigates  were  built,  the  nucleus  of  the  gallant 
little  navy  that  was  by  and  by  to  win  such  triumphs 
over  England.  An  army  was  raised,  and  Washing 
ton  was  placed  in  command,  with  the  rank  of  lieu 
tenant-general.  Gerry  was  recalled  from  France, 
and  the  press  roundly  berated  him  for  showing  less 
firmness  than  his  colleagues,  though  indeed  he  had 
not  done  anything  dishonorable.  During  this  ex 
citement  the  song  of  "Hail  Columbia"  was  pub 
lished  and  became  popular.  On  July  4  the  effigy 
of  Talleyrand,  who  had  once  been  bishop  of  Autun, 
was  arrayed  in  a  surplice  and  burned  at  the  stake. 
The  president  was  authorized  to  issue  letters  of 
marque  and  reprisal,  and  for  a  time  war  with 
France  actually  existed,  though  it  was  never 
declared. 

In  February,  1799,  Capt.  Truxtun,  in  the  frigate 
"Constellation,"  defeated  and  captured  the  French 
frigate  "L'Insurgente"  near  the  island  of  St. 
Christopher.  In  February,  1800,  the  same  gallant 
officer  in  a  desperate  battle  destroyed  the  frigate 
"La  Vengeance,"  which  was  much  his  superior  in 
strength  of  armament.  When  the  directory  found 
that  their  silly  and  infamous  policy  was  likely  to 


100     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

drive  the  United  States  into  alliance  with  Great 
Britain,  they  began  to  change  their  tactics.  Talley 
rand  tried  to  crawl  out  by  disavowing  his  emissaries 
X.  Y.  Z.,  and  pretending  that  the  American  envoys 
had  been  imposed  upon  by  irresponsible  adven 
turers.  He  made  overtures  to  Vans  Murray,  the 
American  minister  at  The  Hague,  tending  toward 
reconciliation.  Mr.  Adams,  while  sharing  the 
federalist  indignation  at  the  behavior  of  France, 
was  too  clear-headed  not  to  see  that  the  only  safe 
policy  for  the  United  States  was  one  of  strict 
neutrality.  He  was  resolutely  determined  to  avoid 
war  if  possible,  and  to  meet  France  half-way  the 
moment  she  should  show  symptoms  of  a  return  to 
reason.  His  cabinet  were  so  far  under  Hamilton's 
influence  that  he  could  not  rely  upon  them ;  indeed, 
he  had  good  reason  to  suspect  them  of  working 
against  him.  Accordingly,  without  consulting  his 
cabinet,  on  February  18, 1799,  he  sent  to  the  senate 
the  nomination  of  Vans  Murray  as  minister  to 
France.  This  bold  step  precipitated  the  quarrel 
between  Mr.  Adams  and  his  party,  and  during  the 
year  it  grew  fiercer  and  fiercer.  He  joined  Ells 
worth,  of  Connecticut,  and  Davie,  of  North  Caro 
lina,  to  Vans  Murray  as  commissioners,  and  awaited 
the  assurance  of  Talleyrand  that  they  would  be 
properly  received  at  Paris.  On  receiving  this 
assurance,  though  it  was  couched  in  rather  insolent 
language  by  the  bafflecl  Frenchman,  the  commis- 


JOHN   ADAMS  101 

sioners  sailed  November  5.  On  reaching  Paris, 
they  found  the  directory  overturned  by  Napoleon, 
with  whom  as  first  consul  they  succeeded  in  adjust 
ing  the  difficulties.  This  French  mission  completed 
the  split  in  the  federalist  party,  and  made  Mr. 
Adams's  re-election  impossible.  The  quarrel  with 
the  Hamiltonians  had  been  further  embittered  by 
Adams's  foolish  attempt  to  prevent  Hamilton's 
obtaining  the  rank  of  senior  major-general,  for 
which  Washington  had  designated  him,  and  it  rose 
to  fever-heat  in  the  spring  of  1800,  when  Mr. 
Adams  dismissed  his  cabinet  and  selected  a  new  one. 
Another  affair  contributed  largely  to  the  down 
fall  of  the  federalist  party.  In  1798,  during  the 
height  of  the  popular  fury  against  France,  the 
federalists  in  congress  presumed  too  much  upon 
their  strength,  and  passed  the  famous  alien  and 
sedition  acts.  By  the  first  of  these  acts,  aliens  were 
rendered  liable  to  summary  banishment  from  the 
United  States  at  the  sole  discretion  of  the  presi 
dent;  and  any  alien  who  should  venture  to  return 
from  such  banishment  was  liable  to  imprisonment 
at  hard  labor  for  life.  By  the  sedition  act,  any 
scandalous  or  malicious  writing  against  the  presi 
dent  or  either  house  of  congress  was  liable  to  be 
dealt  with  in  the  United  States  courts  and  punished 
by  fine  and  imprisonment.  This  act  contravened 
the  constitutional  amendment  that  forbids  all  in 
fringement  of  freedom  of  speech  and  of  the  press, 


102     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

and  both  acts  aroused  more  widespread  indigna 
tion  than  any  others  that  have  ever  passed  in 
congress.  They  called  forth  from  the  southern  re 
publicans  the  famous  Kentucky  and  Virginia  reso 
lutions  of  1798-'99,  which  assert,  though  in 
language  open  to  some  latitude  of  interpretation, 
the  right  of  a  state  to  "nullify"  or  impede  the 
execution  of  a  law  deemed  unconstitutional. 

In  the  election  of  1800  the  federalist  votes  were 
given  to  John  Adams  and  Cotesworth  Pinckney, 
and  the  republican  votes  to  Jefferson  and  Burr. 
The  count  showed  65  votes  for  Adams,  64  for 
Pinckney,  and  1  for  Jay,  while  Jefferson  and  Burr 
had  each  73,  and  the  election  was  thus  thrown  into 
the  house  of  representatives.  Mr.  Adams  took  no 
part  in  the  intrigues  that  followed.  His  last  con 
siderable  public  act,  in  appointing  John  Marshall 
to  the  chief  justiceship  of  the  United  States,  turned 
out  to  be  of  inestimable  value  to  the  country,  and 
was  a  worthy  end  to  a  great  public  career.  Very 
different,  and  quite  unworthy  of  such  a  man  as 
John  Adams,  was  the  silly  and  puerile  fit  of  rage 
in  which  he  got  up  before  daybreak  of  March  4 
and  started  in  his  coach  for  Massachusetts,  instead 
of  waiting  to  see  the  inauguration  of  his  success 
ful  rival.  On  several  occasions  John  Adams's 
career  shows  us  striking  examples  of  the  demoraliz 
ing  effects  of  stupendous  personal  vanity,  but  on 
no  occasion  more  strikingly  than  this.  He  went 


JOHN    ADAMS  103 

home  with  a  feeling  that  he  had  been  disgraced  by 
his  failure  to  secure  a  re-election.  Yet  in  estimat 
ing  his  character  we  must  not  forget  that  in  his 
resolute  insistence  upon  the  French  mission  of  1799 
he  did  not  stop  for  a  moment  to  weigh  the  probable 
effect  of  his  action  upon  his  chances  for  election. 
He  acted  as  a  true  patriot,  ready  to  sacrifice  him 
self  for  the  welfare  of  his  country,  never  regretted 
the  act,  and  always  maintained  that  it  was  the  most 
meritorious  of  his  life.  "I  desire,"  he  said,  "no 
other  inscription  over  my  grave-stone  than  this: 
Here  lies  John  Adams,  who  took  upon  himself  the 
responsibility  of  the  peace  with  France  in  the  year 
1800."  He  was  entirely  right,  as  all  disinterested 
writers  now  agree. 

After  so  long  and  brilliant  a  career,  he  now 
passed  a  quarter  of  a  century  in  his  home  at  Quincy 
(as  that  part  of  Braintree  was  now  called)  in 
peaceful  and  happy  seclusion,  devoting  himself 
to  literary  work  relating  to  the  history  of  his  times. 
In  1820  the  aged  statesman  was  chosen  delegate 
to  the  convention  for  revising  the  constitution  of 
Massachusetts,  and  labored  unsuccessfully  to  obtain 
an  acknowledgment  of  the  equal  rights,  political 
and  religious,  of  others  than  so-called  Christians. 
His  friendship  with  Jefferson,  which  had  been 
broken  off  by  their  political  differences,  was  re 
sumed  in  his  old  age,  and  an  interesting  correspond 
ence  was  kept  up  between  the  two.  As  a  writer  of 


104     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

English,  John  Adams  in  many  respects  surpassed 
all  his  American  contemporaries ;  his  style  was  crisp, 
pungent,  and  vivacious.  In  person  he  was  of 
middle  height,  vigorous,  florid,  and  somewhat  cor 
pulent,  quite  like  the  typical  John  Bull.  He  was 
always  truthful  and  outspoken,  often  vehement  and 
brusque.  Vanity  and  loquacity,  as  he  freely  ad 
mitted,  were  his  chief  foibles.  Without  being  quar 
relsome,  he  had  little  or  none  of  the  tact  that  avoids 
quarrels ;  but  he  harbored  no  malice,  and  his  anger, 
though  violent,  was  short-lived.  Among  American 
public  men  there  has  been  none  more  upright  and 
honorable.  He  lived  to  see  his  son  president  of  the 
United  States,  and  died  on  the  fiftieth  anniversary 
of  the  declaration  of  independence  and  in  the 
ninety-first  year  of  his  age.  His  last  words  were, 
"Thomas  Jefferson  still  survives."  But,  by  a  re 
markable  coincidence,  Jefferson  had  died  a  few 
hours  earlier  the  same  day.  See  "Life  and  Works 
of  John  Adams,"  by  Charles  Francis  Adams  (10 
vols.,  Boston,  1850-'56) ;  "Life  of  John  Adams," 
by  J.  Q.  and  C.  F.  Adams  (2  vols.,  Philadelphia, 
1871) ;  and  "John  Adams,"  by  J.  T.  Morse,  Jr. 
(Boston,  1885). 

The  full-page  portrait  that  accompanies  this 
biography  is  copied  from  a  painting  by  Gilbert 
Stuart,  which  was  executed  while  Mr.  Adams  was 
president,  and  is  now  in  the  possession  of  a  great- 
grandson. 


JOHN    ADAMS  105 

ABIGAIL  ADAMS  (SMITH),  wife  of  John  Adams, 
born  in  Weymouth,  Mass.,  November  23,  1744; 
died  in  Quincy,  Mass.,  October  28,  1818.  Her 
father,  the  Rev.  William  Smith,  was  for  more  than 
forty  years  minister  of  the  Congregational  church 
in  Weymouth.  Her  mother,  Elizabeth  Quincy, 
was  a  great-great-granddaughter  of  the  eminent 
Puritan  divine,  Thomas  Shepard,  of  Cambridge, 
and  great-grandniece  of  the  Rev.  John  Norton,  of 
Boston.  She  was  among  the  most  remarkable 
women  of  the  revolutionary  period.  Her  educa 
tion,  so  far  as  books  were  concerned,  was  but  scanty. 
Of  delicate  and  nervous  organization,  she  was  so 
frequently  ill  during  childhood  and  youth  that  she 
was  never  sent  to  any  school;  but  her  loss  in  this 
respect  was  not  so  great  as  might  appear ;  for,  while 
the  New  England  clergymen  at  that  time  were 
usually  men  of  great  learning,  the  education  of 
their  daughters  seldom  went  further  than  writing 
or  arithmetic,  with  now  and  then  a  smattering  of 
what  passed  current  as  music.  In  the  course  of  her 
long  life  she  became  extensively  acquainted  with 
the  best  English  literature,  and  she  wrote  in  a  terse, 
vigorous,  and  often  elegant  style.  Her  case  may 
well  be  cited  by  those  who  protest  against  the  exag 
gerated  value  commonly  ascribed  to  the  routine  of 
a  school  education.  Her  early  years  were  spent  in 
seclusion,  but  among  people  of  learning  and  polit 
ical  sagacity.  On  October  25,  1764,  she  was  mar- 


106     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

ried  to  John  Adams,  then  a  young  lawyer  practis 
ing  in  Boston,  and  for  the  next  ten  years  her  life 
was  quiet  and  happy,  though  she  shared  the  intense 
interest  of  her  husband  in  the  fierce  disputes  that 
were  so  soon  to  culminate  in  war.  During  this 
period  she  became  the  mother  of  a  daughter  and 
three  sons.  Ten  years  of  doubt  and  anxiety  fol 
lowed  during  which  Mrs.  Adams  was  left  at  home 
in  Braintree,  while  her  husband  was  absent,  first  as 
a  delegate  to  the  Continental  Congress,  afterward 
on  diplomatic  business  in  Europe.  In  the  zeal  and 
determination  with  which  John  Adams  urged  on 
the  declaration  of  independence  he  was  stanchly 
supported  by  his  brave  wife,  a  circumstance  that 
used  sometimes  to  be  jocosely  alleged  in  explana 
tion  of  his  superiority  in  boldness  to  John  Dickin 
son,  the  women  of  whose  household  were  per 
petually  conjuring  up  visions  of  the  headsman's 
block.  In  1784  Mrs.  Adams  joined  her  husband 
in  France,  and  early  in  the  following  year  she 
accompanied  him  to  London.  With  the  recent  loss 
of  the  American  colonies  rankling  in  the  minds 
of  George  III.  and  his  queen,  it  was  hardly  to  be 
expected  that  much  courtesy  would  be  shown  to  the 
first  minister  from  the  United  States  or  to  his  wife. 
Mrs.  Adams  was  treated  with  rudeness,  which  she 
seems  to  have  remembered  vindictively.  "Humilia 
tion  for  Charlotte,"  she  wrote  some  years  later,  "is 
no  sorrow  for  me."  From  1789  to  1801  her  resi- 


JOHN   ADAMS  107 

dence  was  at  the  seat  of  our  federal  government. 
The  remainder  of  her  life  was  passed  in  Braintree 
(in  the  part  called  Quincy),  and  her  lively  interest 
in  public  affairs  was  kept  up  till  the  day  of  her 
death.  Mrs.  Adams  was  a  woman  of  sunny  dis 
position,  and  great  keenness  and  sagacity.  Her 
letters  are  extremely  valuable  for  the  light  they 
throw  upon  the  life  of  the  times.  See  "Familiar 
Letters  of  John  Adams  and  his  Wife,  Abigail 
Adams,  during  the  Revolution/*  with  a  memoir  by 
Charles  Francis  Adams  (New  York,  1876). 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON 

BY 

JAMES  PARTON 


THOMAS  JEFFERSON 

THOMAS  JEFFERSON,,  third  president  of  the 
United  States,  born  in  Shadwell,  Albemarle 
County,  Virginia,  April  2,  1743;  died  at  Monti- 
cello,  in  the  same  county,  July  4,  1826.  His  father 
was  Peter  Jefferson,  who,  with  the  aid  of  thirty 
slaves,  tilled  a  tobacco  and  wheat  farm  of  1,900 
acres;  a  man  physically  strong,  a  good  mathemati 
cian,  skilled  in  surveying,  fond  of  standard  litera 
ture,  and  in  politics  a  British  Whig.  Like  his 
fathers  before  him,  Peter  Jefferson  was  a  justice 
of  the  peace,  a  vestryman  of  his  parish,  and  a  mem 
ber  of  the  colonial  legislature.  The  first  of  the 
Virginia  Jeffersons,  who  were  of  Welsh  extraction, 
was  a  member  of  the  Virginia  legislature  of  1619, 
noted  as  the  first  legislative  body  ever  convened  on 
the  western  continent.  Peter  married  in  1738 
Jane,  daughter  of  Isham  Randolph,  a  wealthy 
and  conspicuous  member  of  the  family  of  that 
name.  Of  their  ten  children,  Thomas  was  the  third, 
born  in  a  plain,  spacious  farm-house,  traces  of 
which  still  exist.  He  inherited  a  full  measure  of 
his  father's  bodily  strength  and  stature,  both  hav 
ing  been  esteemed  in  their  prime  the  strongest  men 

111 


112     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

of  their  county.  He  inherited  also  his  father's 
inclination  to  liberal  politics,  his  taste  for  litera 
ture,  and  his  aptitude  for  mathematics.  Peter 
Jefferson  died  in  1757,  when  his  son  Thomas  was 
fourteen  years  of  age.  On  his  death-bed  he  left 
an  injunction  that  the  education  of  his  son,  already 
well  advanced  in  a  preparatory  school,  should  be 
completed  at  the  College  of  William  and  Mary,  a 
circumstance  which  his  son  always  remembered  with 
gratitude,  saying  that,  if  he  had  to  choose  between 
the  education  and  the  estate  his  father  left  him,  he 
would  choose  the  education.  His  schoolmates  re 
ported  that  at  school  he  was  noted  for  good  scholar 
ship,  industry,  and  shyness.  Without  leaving  his 
father's  land  he  could  shoot  turkeys,  deer,  foxes, 
and  other  game.  His  father  in  his  last  hours  had 
specially  charged  his  mother  not  to  permit  him  to 
neglect  the  exercise  requisite  for  health  and 
strength;  but  the  admonition  was  scarcely  neces 
sary,  for  the  youth  was  a  keen  hunter  and  had  been 
taught  by  his  father  to  swim  his  horse  over  the 
Rivanna,  a  tributary  of  the  James,  which  flowed 
by  the  estate. 

The  Jeffersons  were  a  musical  family;  the  girls 
sang  the  songs  of  the  time,  and  Thomas,  practising 
the  violin  assiduously  from  boyhood,  became  an 
excellent  performer.  At  seventeen,  when  he 
entered  the  College  of  William  and  Mary,  he  was 
tall,  raw-boned,  freckled,  and  sandy-haired,  with 


From  the  painting  by  Mather  Brown,  owned  by  Heiiry  Adams,  Washington,  D<  C. 


THOMAS   JEFFERSON  113 

large  feet  and  hands,  thick  wrists,  and  prominent 
cheek-bones  and  chin.  His  comrades  described  him 
as  far  from  handsome,  a  fresh,  healthy-looking 
youth,  very  erect,  agile,  and  strong,  with  something 
of  rusticity  in  his  air  and  demeanor.  The  college 
was  not  then  efficient  nor  well  equipped,  but  there 
was  one  true  educator  connected  with  it,  Dr.  Wil 
liam  Small,  of  Scotland,  professor  of  mathematics. 
Jefferson  gratefully  remembered  him  as  an  ardent 
student  of  science,  who  possessed  a  happy  talent 
for  communicating  knowledge,  a  man  of  agreeable 
manners  and  enlightened  mind.  He  goes  so  far 
as  to  say  in  his  autobiography  that  his  coming 
under  the  influence  of  Dr.  Small  "probably  fixed 
the  destinies  of  my  life."  The  learned  and  genial 
professor  became  attached  to  his  receptive  pupil, 
made  him  the  daily  companion  of  his  walks,  and 
gave  him  those  views  of  the  connection  of  the 
sciences  and  of  the  system  of  things  of  which  man 
is  a  part  which  then  prevailed  in  the  advanced  scien 
tific  circles  of  Europe.  Prof.  Small  was  a  friend 
of  the  poet  Erasmus  Darwin,  progenitor  of  an 
illustrious  line  of  learned  men.  Jefferson  was  a 
hard  student  in  college,  and  at  times  forgot  his 
father's  dying  injunction  as  to  exercise.  He  kept 
horses  at  Williamsburg,  but  as  his  love  of  knowl 
edge  increased  his  rides  became  shorter  and  less 
frequent,  and  even  his  beloved  violin  was  neglected. 
There  was  a  time,  as  he  remembered,  when  he 


LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

studied  fifteen  hours  a  day.  Once  a  week  the 
lieutenant-governor,  Francis  Fauquier,  had  a 
musical  party  at  the  "palace/'  to  which  the  guests, 
in  the  good  old  style  of  that  century,  brought  their 
instruments.  Jefferson  was  always  present  at  these 
parties  with  his  violin,  and  participated  in  the  con 
cert,  the  governor  himself  being  also  a  performer. 
From  Fauquier,  a  man  of  the  world  of  the  period, 
he  learned  much  of  the  social,  political,  and  par 
liamentary  life  of  the  Old  World.  George  Wythe, 
afterward  chancellor,  was  then  a  young  lawyer  of 
Williamsburg.  He  was  one  of  the  highly  gifted 
men  that  frequented  the  governor's  table,  and  con 
tributed  especially  to  the  forming  of  Jefferson's 
mind. 

On  his  graduation,  Jefferson  entered  upon  the 
study  of  law,  under  the  guidance  of  George  Wythe. 
As  his  father's  estate  was  charged  with  the  main 
tenance  of  a  large  family,  a  profession  was  neces 
sary  to  the  student,  and  he  entered  upon  his  prepa 
ration  for  the  bar  with  all  his  energy  and  resolu 
tion.  On  coming  of  age,  in  April,  1764,  he 
assumed  the  management  of  the  estate,  and  was 
appointed  to  two  of  his  father's  offices — justice  of 
the  peace  and  vestryman.  He  gave  much  attention 
to  the  cultivation  of  his  lands,  and  remained  always 
an  attentive,  zealous,  and  improving  farmer.  He 
attached  importance  all  his  life  to  the  fact  that  his 
legal  training  was  based  upon  the  works  of  Lord 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON  115 

Coke,  of  whom  he  said  that  "a  sounder  Whig  never 
wrote,  nor  one  of  prof  ounder  learning  in  the  ortho 
dox  doctrines  of  the  British  constitution,  or  in  what 
were  called  British  liberties."  It  was  his  settled 
conviction  that  the  early  drill  of  the  colonial  law 
yers  in  "Coke  upon  Lyttleton"  prepared  them  for 
the  part  they  took  in  resisting  the  unconstitutional 
acts  of  the  British  government.  Lawyers  formed 
by  Coke,  he  would  say,  were  all  good  Whigs;  but 
from  the  time  that  Blackstone  became  the  leading 
text-book  "the  profession  began  to  slide  into 
Toryism."  His  own  study  of  Coke  led  him  to  ex 
tend  his  researches  into  the  origins  of  British  law, 
and  led  him  also  to  the  rejection  of  the  maxim  of 
Sir  Matthew  Hale,  that  Christianity  is  parcel  of 
the  laws  of  England.  His  youthful  treatise  on  this 
complex  and  difficult  point  shows  us  at  once  the 
minuteness  and  the  extent  of  his  legal  studies. 

While  he  was  a  student  of  law,  he  was  an  eye 
witness  of  those  memorable  scenes  in  the  Virginia 
legislature  which  followed  the  passage  of  the 
stamp-act.  He  was  present  as  a  spectator  in  the 
house  when  Patrick  Henry  read  his  five  resolutions, 
written  upon  a  blank  leaf  torn  from  a  "Coke  upon 
Lyttleton,"  enunciating  the  principle  that  English 
men  living  in  America  had  all  the  rights  of  Eng 
lishmen  living  in  England,  the  chief  of  which  was 
that  they  could  only  be  taxed  by  their  own  repre 
sentatives.  When  he  was  an  old  man,  seated  at 


116     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

his  table  at  Monticello,  he  loved  to  speak  of  that 
great  day,  and  to  describe  the  thrill  and  ecstasy 
of  the.  moment  when  the  wonderful  orator,  inter 
rupted  by  cries  of  "Treason,"  uttered  the  well- 
known  words  of  defiance:   "If  this  be  treason, 
make  the  most  of  it!"    Early  in  1767,  about  his 
twenty- fourth  birthday,  Jefferson  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  of  Virginia,  and  entered  at  once  upon  the 
practice  of  his  profession.    Connected  through  his 
father  with  the  yeomen  of  the  western  counties,  and 
through  his  mother  with  the  wealthier  planters  of 
the  eastern,  he  had  not  long  to  wait  for  business. 
His  first  account-book,  which  still  exists,  shows  that 
in  the  first  year  of  his  practice  he  was  employed  in 
sixty-eight  cases  before  the  general  court  of  the 
province,  besides  county  and  office  business.     He 
was  an  accurate,  painstaking,  and  laborious  prac 
titioner,  and  his  business  increased  until  he  was 
employed  in  nearly  five  hundred  cases  in  a  single 
year,  which  yielded  an  average  profit  of  about  one 
pound  sterling  each.     He  was  not  a  fluent  nor  a 
forcible  speaker,  and  his  voice  soon  became  husky 
as  he  proceeded;  but  James  Madison,  who  heard 
him  try  a  cause,  reports  that  he  acquitted  himself 
well,  and  spoke  fluently  enough  for  his  purpose. 
He  loved  the  erudition  of  the  law,  and  attached 
great  importance  to  the  laws  of  a  country  as  the 
best  source  of  its  history.    It  was  he  who  suggested 
and  promoted  the  collection  of  Virginia  laws  known 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON  117 

as  "Henning's  Statutes  at  Large,"  to  which  he  con 
tributed  the  most  rare  and  valuable  part  of  the 
contents.  He  practised  law  for  nearly  eight  years, 
until  the  Revolutionary  contest  summoned  him  to 
other  labors. 

His  public  life  began  May  11,  1769,  when  he 
took  his  seat  as  a  member  of  the  Virginia  house 
of  burgesses,  Washington  being  also  a  member. 
Jefferson  was  then  twenty-six  years  old.  On  be 
coming  a  public  man  he  made  a  resolution  "never 
to  engage,  while  in  public  office,  in  any  kind  of 
enterprise  for  the  improvement  of  my  fortune,  nor 
to  wear  any  other  character  than  that  of  a  farmer." 
At  the  close  of  his  public  career  of  nearly  half  a 
century  he  could  say  that  he  had  kept  this  resolu 
tion,  and  he  often  found  the  benefit  of  it  in  being 
able  to  consider  public  questions  free  from  the  bias 
of  self-interest.  This  session  of  the  burgesses  was 
short.  On  the  third  day  were  introduced  the 
famous  four  resolutions,  to  the  effect  that  the 
colonies  could  not  be  lawfully  taxed  by  a  body  in 
which  they  were  not  represented,  and  that  they 
might  concur,  cooperate,  and  practically  unite  in 
seeking  a  redress  of  grievances.  On  the  fifth  day 
of  the  session  the  royal  governor,  Lord  Botetourt, 
dissolved  the  house ;  but  the  members  speedily  reas 
sembled  in  the  great  room  of  the  Raleigh  tavern, 
where  similar  resolutions,  with  others  more  pointed, 
were  passed.  The  decency  and  firmness  of  these 


118     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

proceedings  had  their  effect.  Before  many  months 
had  passed  the  governor  summoned  the  assembly 
and  greeted  them  with  the  news  that  parliament 
had  abandoned  the  system  of  taxing  the  colonies — 
a  delusive  statement,  which  he,  however,  fully  be 
lieved  himself  authorized  to  make.  Amid  the  joy 
—too  brief — of  this  supposed  change  of  policy, 
Jefferson  made  his  first  important  speech  in  the 
house,  in  which  he  advocated  the  repeal  of  the  law 
that  obliged  a  master  who  wished  to  free  his  slaves 
to  send  them  out  of  the  colony.  The  motion  was 
promptly  rejected,  and  the  mover,  Mr.  Bland,  was 
denounced  as  an  enemy  to  his  country. 

On  January  1,  1772,  Jefferson  married  Mrs. 
Martha  Skelton,  a  beautiful  and  childless  young 
widow,  daughter  of  John  Wayles,  a  lawyer  in  large 
practice  at  the  Williamsburg  bar.  His  new  house 
at  Monticello  was  then  just  habitable,  and  he  took 
his  wife  home  to  it  a  few  days  after  the  ceremony. 
Next  year  the  death  of  his  wife's  father  brought 
them  a  great  increase  of  fortune — 40,000  acres  of 
land  and  135  slaves,  which,  when  the  encumbrances 
were  discharged,  doubled  Jefferson's  estate.  He 
was  now  a  fortunate  man  indeed;  opulent  in  his 
circumstances,  happily  married,  and  soon  a  father. 
We  see  him  busied  in  the  most  pleasing  kinds  of 
agriculture,  laying  out  gardens,  introducing  new 
products,  arranging  his  farms,  completing  and 
furnishing  his  house,  and  making  every  effort  to 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON  119 

convert  his  little  mountain,  covered  with  primeval 
forest,  into  an  agreeable  and  accessible  park. 
After  numerous  experiments  he  domesticated 
almost  every  tree  and  shrub,  native  and  foreign, 
that  could  survive  the  severe  Virginia  winter. 

The  contest  with  the  king  was  soon  renewed, 
and  the  decisive  year,  1774,  opened.  It  found 
Thomas  Jefferson  a  thriving  and  busy  young  law 
yer  and  farmer,  not  known  beyond  Virginia;  but 
when  it  closed  he  was  a  person  of  note  among  the 
patriots  of  America,  and  was  proscribed  in  Eng 
land.  It  was  he  who  prepared  the  "Draught  of 
Instructions"  for  Virginia's  Delegation  to  the 
Congress  which  met  at  Philadelphia  in  September. 
That  congress,  he  thought,  should  unite  in  a  solemn 
address  to  the  king;  but  they  should  speak  to  him 
in  a  frank  and  manly  way,  informing  him,  as  the 
chief  magistrate  of  an  empire  governed  by  many 
legislatures,  that  one  of  those  legislatures — namely, 
the  British  parliament — had  encroached  upon  the 
rights  of  thirteen  others.  They  were  also  to  say 
to  the  king  that  he  was  no  more  than  the  chief 
officer  of  the  people,  appointed  by  the  laws  and 
circumscribed  with  definite  powers.  He  also  spoke, 
in  this  very  radical  draught,  of  "the  late  deposition 
of  his  majesty,  King  Charles,  by  the  Common 
wealth  of  England"  as  a  thing  obviously  right. 
He  maintained  that  the  parliament  of  Virginia  had 
as  much  right  to  pass  laws  for  the  government  of 


120     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

the  people  of  England  as  the  British  legislature 
had  to  pass  laws  for  the  government  of  the  people 
of  Virginia.  "Can  any  one  reason  be  assigned," 
he  asked,  "why  a  hundred  and  sixty  thousand 
electors  in  the  island  of  Great  Britain  should  give 
law  to  four  millions  in  the  states  of  America?" 
The  draught,  indeed,  was  so  radical  on  every  point 
that  it  seemed  to  the  ruling  British  mind  of  that 
day  mere  insolent  burlesque.  It  was  written,  how 
ever,  by  Jefferson  in  the  most  modest  and  earnest 
spirit,  showing  that,  at  the  age  of  thirty-one,  his 
radical  opinions  were  fully  formed,  and  their  ex 
pression  was  wholly  unqualified  by  a  knowledge  of 
the  world  beyond  the  sea.  This  draught,  though 
not  accepted  by  the  convention,  was  published  in  a 
pamphlet,  copies  of  which  were  sent  to  England, 
where  Edmund  Burke  caused  it  to  be  republished 
with  emendations  and  additions  of  his  own.  It 
procured  for  the  author,  to  use  his  own  language, 
"the  honor  of  having  his  name  inserted  in  a  long 
list  of  proscriptions  enrolled  in  a  bill  of  attainder." 
The  whole  truth  of  the  controversy  was  given  in 
this  pamphlet,  without  any  politic  reserves. 

In  March,  1775,  Jefferson,  who  had  been  kept 
at  Monticello  for  some  time  by  illness,  was  in  Rich 
mond  as  a  member  of  the  convention  which  assem 
bled  in  the  parish  church  of  St.  John  to  consider 
what  course  Virginia  should  take  in  the  crisis.  It 
was  as  a  member  of  this  body  that  Patrick  Henry, 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON  121 

to  an  audience  of  150  persons,  spoke  the  prophetic 
words  in  solemn  tones  as  the  key  to  the  enigma: 
"We  must  fight!  The  next  gale  that  sweeps  from 
the  north  will  bring  to  our  ears  the  clash  of  re 
sounding  arms."  These  sentences,  spoken -twenty- 
seven  days  before  the  affair  of  Lexington,  con 
vinced  the  convention,  and  it  was  agreed  that  Vir 
ginia  should  arm.  A  committee  of  thirteen  was 
appointed  to  arrange  a  plan,  among  the  members 
of  which  were  Patrick  Henry,  George  Washing 
ton,  Richard  Henry  Lee,  Benjamin  Harrison,  the 
speaker,  Edmund  Pendleton,  and  Thomas  Jeffer 
son.  The  plan  they  agreed  upon  was  this:  The 
populous  counties  to  raise  and  drill  infantry  com 
panies;  the  other  counties  horsemen,  and  both  to 
wear  the  hunting  shirt,  which  Col.  Washington  told 
them  was  the  best  field  uniform  he  knew  of.  The 
last  act  of  this  convention  was  to  appoint  that,  in 
case  a  vacancy  should  occur  in  the  delegation  of 
Virginia  to  congress,  Thomas  Jefferson  should 
supply  the  place.  A  vacancy  occurred,  and  on 
June  20,  1775,  the  day  on  which  Washington  re 
ceived  his  commission  as  commander-in-chief,  Jef 
ferson  reached  Philadelphia,  and  took  his  seat  the 
next  morning  in  congress.  Before  the  sun  set  that 
day  congress  received  news  of  the  stirring  battle 
of  Bunker  Hill. 

Jefferson  was  an  earnest,  diligent,  and  useful 
member  of  the  congress.    John  Adams,  his  fellow- 


122     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

member,  describes  him  as  "so  prompt,  frank,  ex 
plicit,  and  decisive  upon  committees  and  in  con 
versation  that  he  soon  seized  upon  my  heart."  His 
readiness  in  composition,  his  profound  knowledge 
of  British  law,  and  his  innate  love  of  freedom  and 
justice  gave  him  solid  standing  in  the  body.  On 
his  return  to  Virginia  he  was  re-elected  by  a 
majority  that  placed  him  third  in  the  list  of  seven 
members.  After  ten  days'  vacation  at  home,  where 
he  then  had  a  house  undergoing  enlargement,  and 
a  household  of  thirty- four  whites  and  eighty-three 
blacks,  with  farms  in  three  counties  to  superintend, 
he  returned  to  congress  to  take  his  part  in  the 
events  that  led  to  the  complete  and  formal  separa 
tion  of  the  colonies  from  the  mother-country.  In 
May,  1776,  the  news  reached  congress  that  the  Vir 
ginia  convention  were  unanimous  for  independence, 
and  on  June  7  Richard  Henry  Lee  obeyed  the 
instructions  of  the  Virginia  legislature  by  moving 
that  independence  should  be  declared.  On  June  10 
a  committee  of  five  was  appointed  to  prepare  a 
draught  of  the  Declaration — Jefferson,  Franklin, 
John  Adams,  Roger  Sherman,  and  Robert  R. 
Livingston.  Mr.  Jefferson,  being  the  chairman  of 
the  committee,  was  naturally  asked  to  write  the 
document.  He  then  lived  near  what  is  now  the 
corner  of  Market  and  Seventh  streets.  The  paper 
was  written  in  a  room  of  the  second  floor,  upon  a 
little  writing-desk  three  inches  high,  of  his  own 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON  123 

contriving,  which  still  exists.  Congress  subjected 
this  draught  to  a  severe  and  prolonged  revision, 
making  many  suppressions,  additions,  and  altera 
tions,  most  of  which  were  improvements.  One 
passage  was  suppressed  in  which  he  gave  ex 
pression  to  the  wounded  feelings  of  the  American 
people  in  being  so  unworthily  treated  by  brethren 
and  fellow-citizens.  The  document  was  debated  in 
congress  on  July  2,  3,  and  4.  Thursday,  the  4th, 
was  a  warm  day,  and  the  members  in  the  afternoon 
became  weary  and  impatient  with  the  long  strain 
upon  their  nerves.  Jefferson  used  to  relate  with 
much  merriment  that  the  final  vote  upon  the 
Declaration  was  hastened  by  swarms  of  flies,  which 
came  from  a  neighboring  stable,  and  added  to  the 
discomfort  of  the  members.  A  few  days  after 
ward  he  was  one  of  a  committee  to  devise  a  seal  for 
the  new-born  power.  Among  their  suggestions 
(and  this  was  the  only  one  accepted  by  congress) 
was  the  best  legend  ever  appropriated,  E  pluribus 
unum,  a  phrase  that  had  served  as  a  motto  on  the 
cover  of  the  "Gentleman's  Magazine"  for  many 
years.  It  was  originally  borrowed  from  a  humor 
ous  poem  of  Virgil's. 

Having  thus  linked  his  name  imperishably  with 
the  birthday  of  the  nation,  Jefferson  resigned  his 
seat  in  congress,  on  the  ground  that  the  health  of 
his  wife  and  the  condition  of  his  household  made 
his  presence  in  Virginia  indispensable.  He  had  also 


124     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

been  again  elected  a  member  of  the  Virginia  legis 
lature,  and  his  heart  was  set  upon  the  work  of  purg 
ing  the  statute-books  of  unsuitable  laws,  and  bring 
ing  up  Virginia  to  the  level  of  the  Declaration. 
He  had  formed  a  high  conception  of  the  excellence 
of  the  New  England  governments,  and  wished  to 
introduce  into  his  native  state  the  local  institutions 
that  had  enabled  those  states  to  act  with  such 
efficiency  during  the  war.  After  some  stay  at  home 
he  entered  upon  this  work  at  Williamsburg,  where, 
October  8,  1776,  a  messenger  from  'congress  in 
formed  him  that  he  had  been  elected  joint  commis 
sioner,  with  Franklin  and  Deane,  to  represent  the 
United  States  at  Paris.  After  three  days  of  con 
sideration,  he  resisted  the  temptation  to  go  abroad, 
feeling  that  his  obligations  to  his  family  and  his 
state  made  it  his  duty  to  remain  at  home.  In  re 
organizing  Virginia,  Jefferson  and  his  friends 
struck  first  at  the  system  of  entail,  which,  after 
three  weeks'  earnest  debate,  was  totally  destroyed, 
so  that  all  property  in  Virginia  was  held  in  fee 
simple  and  could  be  sold  for  debt.  He  next  at 
tempted,  by  a  short  and  simple  enactment,  to 
abolish  the  connection  between  church  and  state. 
He  was  able  to  accomplish  but  a  small  portion  of 
this  reform  at  that  session,  but  the  work  was  begun, 
and  nine  years  later  the  law  drawn  by  Jefferson, 
entitled  "An  Act  for  establishing  Religious  Free 
dom,"  completed  the  severance.  This  triumph  of 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON  125 

equal  rights  over  ancient  prejudices  and  restriction 
Jefferson  always  regarded  as  one  of  his  most  im 
portant  contributions  to  the  happiness  of  his  coun 
try.  Some  of  his  utterances  on  this  subject  have 
passed  into  familiar  proverbs:  "Government  has 
nothing  to  do  with  opinion,"  "Compulsion  makes 
hypocrites,  not  converts,"  "It  is  error  alone  which 
needs  the  support  of  government;  truth  can  stand 
by  itself." 

It  was  he  who  drew  the  bill  for  establishing 
courts  of  law  in  the  state,  and  for  prescribing  their 
powers  and  methods.  It  was  he  also  who  caused 
the  removal  of  the  capital  to  Richmond.  He  car 
ried  the  bill  extirpating  the  principle  of  primogeni 
ture.  It  was  the  committee  of  which  he  was  chair 
man  that  abolished  the  cruel  penalties  of  the  ancient 
code,  and  he  made  a  most  earnest  attempt  to  estab 
lish  a  system  of  public  education  in  the  state.  Dur 
ing  two  years  he  and  his  colleagues,  Hamilton, 
Wythe,  Mason  and  Francis  Lightfoot  Lee,  toiled 
at  the  reconstruction  of  Virginia  law,  during  which 
they  accomplished  all  that  'was  then  possible,  be 
sides  proposing  many  measures  that  were  passed 
at  a  later  day.  He  could  write  to  Dr.  Franklin  in 
1777  that  the  people  of  Virginia  had  "laid  aside  the 
monarchical  and  taken  up  the  republican  govern 
ment  with  as  much  ease  as  would  have  attended 
their  throwing  off  an  old  and  putting  on  a  new 
suit  of  clothes."  It  was  Jefferson  and  his  friends 


126     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

who  wrought  this  salutary  change,  and  they  were 
able  to  effect  it  because,  during  the  first  three  years 
of  the  war,  Virginia  was  almost  exempt  from  dis 
turbance.  In  the  spring  of  1779,  when  Burgoyne's 
army,  as  prisoners  of  war,  were  encamped  near 
Monticello,  Jefferson  was  assiduous  in  friendly 
attentions  both  to  the  British  and  the  Hessians, 
throwing  open  his  house  and  grounds  to  them,  and 
arranging  many  agreeable  concerts  for  their  enter 
tainment.  A  British  captain,  himself  a  good 
violinist,  who  played  duets  with  Jefferson  at  this 
time,  told  the  late  Gen.  John  A.  Dix,  of  New  York, 
that  Thomas  Jefferson  was  the  best  amateur  he  had 
ever  heard. 

In  January,  1779,  the  Virginia  legislature  elected 
Jefferson  governor  of  the  state,  to  succeed  Patrick 
Henry,  whose  third  term  ended  on  June  1.  The 
two  years  of  his  governorship  proved  to  be  the 
severest  trial  of  his  life.  With  slender  and  fast 
diminishing  resources,  he  had  to  keep  up  the  Vir 
ginia  regiments  in  the  army  of  Washington,  and 
at  the  same  time  to  send  all  possible  supplies  to  the 
support  of  Gen.  Gates  in  his  southern  campaign. 
The  western  Indians  were  a  source  of  constant 
solicitude,  and  they  were  held  in  check  by  that  brave 
and  energetic  neighbor  of  Gov.  Jefferson,  George 
Rogers  Clarke.  The  British  and  Hessian  prisoners 
also  had  to  be  supplied  and  guarded.  In  the  midst 
of  his  first  anxieties  he  began  the  reorganization 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON  127 

that  he  had  long  desired  of  the  College  of  William 
and  Mary.  Soon,  however,  his  attention  was  wholly 
absorbed  by  the  events  of  the  war.  On  August  16, 
1780,  occurred  the  disastrous  defeat  of  Gates  at 
Camden,  which  destroyed  in  a  day  all  that  Jeffer 
son  had  toiled  to  accumulate  in  warlike  material 
during  eight  agonizing  weeks.  On  the  last  day  of 
1780,  Arnold's  fleet  of  twenty-seven  sail  anchored 
in  Chesapeake  bay,  and  Arnold,  with  nine  hundred 
men,  penetrated  as  far  as  Richmond;  but  Jeffer 
son  had  acted  with  so  much  promptitude,  and  was 
so  ably  seconded  by  the  county  militia,  that  the 
traitor  held  Richmond  but  twenty-three  hours,  and 
escaped  total  destruction  only  through  a  timely 
change  in  the  wind,  which  bore  him  down  the  river 
with  extraordinary  swiftness.  In  five  days  from 
the  first  summons  twenty-five  hundred  militia  were 
in  pursuit  of  Arnold,  and  hundreds  more  were  com 
ing  in  every  hour.  For  eighty- four  hours  Gov. 
Jefferson  was  almost  continuously  in  the  saddle; 
and  for  many  months  after  Arnold's  first  repulse, 
not  only  the  governor,  but  all  that  Virginia  had 
left  of  manhood,  resources,  and  credit  were  ab 
sorbed  in  the  contest. 

Four  times  in  the  spring  of  1781  the  legislature 
of  Virginia  was  obliged  to  adjourn  and  fly  before 
the  approach  or  the  threat  of  an  enemy.  Monti- 
cello  was  captured  by  a  troop  of  horse,  and  Jeffer 
son  himself  narrowly  escaped.  Cornwallis  lived  for 


128     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

ten  days  in  the  governor's  house  at  Elk  Hill,  a  hun 
dred  miles  down  the  James,  where  he  destroyed  all 
the  growing  crops,  burned  the  barns,  carried  off 
the  horses,  killed  the  colts,  and  took  away  twenty- 
seven  slaves.  During  the  public  disasters  of  that 
time  there  was  the  usual  disposition  among  a  por 
tion  of  the  people  to  cast  the  blame  upon  the  ad 
ministration,  and  Jefferson  himself  was  of  the 
opinion  that,  in  such  a  desperate  crisis,  it  was  best 
that  the  civil  and  the  military  power  should  be 
intrusted  to  the  same  hand.  He  therefore  declined 
a  re-election  to  a  third  term,  and  induced  his  friends 
to  support  Gen.  Thomas  Nelson,  commander-in- 
chief  of  the  militia,  who  was  elected.  The  capture 
of  Cornwallis  in  November,  1781,  atoned  for  all 
the  previous  suffering  and  disaster.  A  month  later 
Jefferson  rose  in  his  place  in  the  legislature  and 
declared  his  readiness  to  answer  any  charges  that 
might  be  brought  against  his  administration  of  the 
government ;  but  no  one  responded.  After  a  pause, 
a  member  offered  a  resolution  thanking  him  for 
his  impartial,  upright,  and  attentive  discharge  of 
his  duty,  which  was  passed  without  a  dissenting 
voice. 

On  September  6,  1782,  Jefferson's  wife  died,  to 
his  unspeakable  and  lasting  sorrow,  leaving  three 
daughters,  the  youngest  four  months  old.  Dur 
ing  the  stupor  caused  by  this  event  he  was  elected 
by  a  unanimous  vote  of  congress,  and,  as  Madison 


B    * 

IS 

H    ^ 

W    * 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON  129 

reports,  "without  a  single  adverse  remark,"  pleni 
potentiary  to  France,  to  treat  for  peace.  He  gladly 
accepted;  but,  before  he  sailed,  the  joyful  news 
came  that  preliminaries  of  peace  had  been  agreed 
to,  and  he  returned  to  Monticello.  In  June,  1783, 
he  was  elected  to  congress,  and  in  November  took 
his  seat  at  Annapolis.  Here,  as  chairman  of  a  com 
mittee  on  the  currency,  he  assisted  to  give  us  the 
decimal  currency  now  in  use.  The  happy  idea  orig 
inated  with  Gouverneur  Morris,  of  New  York,  but 
with  details  too  cumbrous  for  common  use.  Jef 
ferson  proposed  our  present  system  of  dollars  and 
cents,  with  dimes,  half-dimes,  and  a  great  gold 
coin  of  ten  dollars,  with  subdivisions,  such  as  we 
have  now.  Jefferson  strongly  desired  also  to 
apply  the  decimal  system  to  all  measures.  When 
he  travelled  he  carried  with  him  an  odometer,  which 
divided  the  miles  into  hundredths,  which  he  called 
cents.  "I  find,"  said  he,  "that  every  one  compre 
hends  a  distance  readily  when  stated  to  him  in  miles 
and  cents;  so  he  would  in  feet  and  cents,  pounds 
and  cents." 

On  May  7,  1784,  congress  elected  Jefferson  for 
a  third  time  plenipotentiary  to  France,  to  join 
Franklin  and  Adams  in  negotiating  commercial 
treaties  with  foreign  powers.  On  July  5  he  sailed 
from  Boston  upon  his  mission  and  thirty-two  days 
later  took  up  his  abode  in  Paris.  On  May  2,  1785, 
he  received  from  Mr.  Jay  his  commission  appoint- 


130     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

ing  him  sole  minister  plenipotentiary  to  the  king  of 
France  for  three  years  from  March  10,  1785. 
"You  replace  Dr.  Franklin,"  said  the  Count  de 
Vergennes  to  him,  when  he  announced  his  appoint 
ment.  Jefferson  replied:  "I  succeed;  no  one  can 
replace  him."  The  impression  that  France  made 
upon  Jefferson's  mind  was  painful  in  the  extreme. 
While  enjoying  the  treasures  of  art  that  Paris  pre 
sented,  and  particularly  its  music,  fond  of  the 
people,  too,  relishing  their  amiable  manners,  their 
habits  and  tastes,  he  was  nevertheless  appalled  at 
the  cruel  oppression  of  the  ancient  system  of  gov 
ernment.  "The  people,"  said  he,  "are  ground  to 
powder  by  the  vices  of  the  form  of  government," 
and  he  wrote  to  Madison  that  government  by 
hereditary  rulers  was  a  "government  of  wolves  over 
sheep,  or  kites  over  pigeons."  Beaumarchais's 
"Marriage  of  Figaro"  was  in  its  first  run  when 
Jefferson  settled  in  Paris,  and  the  universal  topic 
of  conversation  was  the  defects  of  the  established 
regime.  Upon  the  whole,  he  enjoyed  and  assidu 
ously  improved  his  five  years'  residence  in  Europe. 
His  official  labors  were  arduous  and  constant. 
He  strove,  though  in  vain,  to  procure  the  release 
of  American  captives  in  Algiers  without  paying 
the  enormous  ransom  demanded  by  the  dey.  With 
little  more  success,  he  endeavored  to  break  into  the 
French  protective  system,  which  kept  from  the 
kingdom  the  cheap  food  that  America  could  supply, 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON  131 

and  for  want  of  which  the  people  were  perishing 
and  the  monarchy  was  in  peril.  He  kept  the 
American  colleges  advised  of  the  new  inventions, 
discoveries,  and  books  of  Europe.  He  was  par 
ticularly  zealous  in  sending  home  seeds,  roots,  and 
nuts  for  trial  in  American  soil.  During  his  journey 
to  Italy  he  procured  a  quantity  of  the  choicest  rice 
for  the  planters  of  South  Carolina,  and  he  sup 
plied  Buff  on  with  American  skins,  skeletons,  horns, 
and  similar  objects  for  his  collection.  In  Paris  he 
published  his  "Notes  on  Virginia,"  both  in  French 
and  English,  a  work  full  of  information  concern 
ing  its  main  subject,  and  at  the  same  time  sur 
charged  with  the  republican  sentiment  then  so 
grateful  to  the  people  of  France.  In  1786,  when 
at  length  the  Virginia  legislature  passed  his  "Act 
for  Freedom  of  Religion,"  he  had  copies  of  it 
printed  for  distribution,  and  it  was  received  with 
rapture  by  the  advanced  Liberals.  It  was  his  cus 
tom  while  travelling  in  France  to  enter  the  houses 
of  the  peasants  and  converse  with  them  upon  their 
affairs  and  condition.  He  would  contrive  to  sit 
upon  the  bed,  in  order  to  ascertain  what  it  was  made 
of,  and  get  a  look  into  the  boiling  pot,  to  see  what 
was  to  be  the  family  dinner.  He  strongly  advised 
Lafayette  to  do  the  same,  saying:  "You  must 
ferret  the  people  out  of  their  hovels  as  I  have  done, 
look  into  their  kettles,  eat  their  bread,  loll  on  their 
beds,  on  pretence  of  resting  yourself,  but  in  fact 


132     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

to  find  if  they  are  soft."  His  letters  are  full  of 
this  subject.  He  returns  again  and  again  to  the 
frightful  inequalities  of  condition,  the  vulgarity 
and  incapacity  of  the  hereditary  rulers,  and  the 
hopeless  destiny  of  nineteen  twentieths  of  the 
people.  His  compassion  for  the  people  of  France 
was  the  more  intense  from  his  strong  appreciation 
of  their  excellent  qualities. 

Having   received   a   leave   of   absence    for   six 
months,  he  returned  with  his  daughter  to  Virginia, 
landing  at  Norfolk,  November  18,  1789.    His  re 
ception   was   most   cordial.      The   legislature   ap 
pointed    a   committee    of   thirteen,    with    Patrick 
Henry  at  their  head,  to  congratulate  him  on  his 
return,  and  on  the  day  of  his  landing  he  read  in  a 
newspaper  that  President  Washington,  in  settling 
the  new  government,  had  assigned  to  Thomas  Jef 
ferson  the  office  of  secretary  of  state.     "I  made 
light  of  it,"  he  wrote  soon  afterward,  "supposing 
I  had  only  to  say  no,  and  there  would  be  an  end 
of  it."    On  receiving  the  official  notification  of  his 
appointment,  he  told  the  president  that  he  pre* 
f  erred  to  retain  the  office  he  held.    "But,"  he  added, 
"it  is  not  for  an  individual  to  choose  his  post.    You 
are  to  marshal  us  as  may  be  best  for  the  public 
good."    He  finally  accepted  the  appointment,  and 
after  witnessing  at  Monticello,  February  23,  1790, 
the  marriage  of  his  eldest  daughter,  Martha,  to 
Thodnas  Mann  Randolph,  he  began  his  journey  to 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON  133 

New  York.  During  his  absence  in  France,  his 
youngest  daughter,  Lucy,  had  died,  leaving  him 
Martha  and  Maria.  On  Sunday,  March  21,  1790, 
he  reached  New  York,  to  enter  upon  the  duties  of 
his  new  office.  He  hired  a  house  at  No.  57  Maiden 
Lane,  the  city  then  containing  a  population  of 
35,000.  His  colleagues  in  the  cabinet  were  Alexan 
der  Hamilton,  secretary  of  the  treasury;  Henry 
Knox,  secretary  of  war;  and  Edmund  Randolph, 
attorney-general.  Jefferson's  salary  was  only 
$3,500,  and  that  of  the  other  three  members  of  the 
cabinet  but  $3,000,  a  compensation  that  proved 
painfully  inadequate. 

He  soon  found  himself  ill  at  ease  in  his  place. 
He  had  left  Paris  when  the  fall  of  the  Bastile  was 
a  recent  event,  and  when  the  revolutionary  move 
ment  still  promised  to  hopeful  spirits  the  greatest 
good  to  France  and  to  Europe.  He  had  been  con 
sulted  at  every  stage  of  its  progress  by  Lafayette 
and  the  other  Republican  leaders,  with  whom  he 
was  in  the  deepest  sympathy.  He  left  his  native 
land  a  Whig  of  the  Revolution;  he  returned  to  it 
a  Republican-Democrat.  In  his  reply  to  the  con 
gratulations  of  his  old  constituents,  he  had  spoken 
of  the  "sufficiency  of  human  reason  for  the  care 
of  human  affairs."  He  declared  "the  will  of  the 
majority  to  be  the  natural  law  of  every  society, 
and  the  only  sure  guardian  of  the  rights  of  man." 
He  added  these  important  words,  which  contain 


134     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

the  most  material  article  of  his  political  creed: 
"Perhaps  even  this  may  sometimes  err;  but  its 
errors  are  honest,  solitary,  and  short-lived.  Let 
us,  then,  forever  bow  down  to  the  general  reason 
of  society.  We  are  safe  with  that,  even  in  its 
deviations,  for  it  soon  returns  again  to  the  right 
way."  To  other  addresses  of  welcome  he  replied 
in  a  similar  tone.  He  brought  to  New  York  a 
settled  conviction  that  the  republican  is  the  only 
form  of  government  that  is  not  robbery  and 
violence  organized.  Feeling  thus,  he  was  grieved 
and  astonished  to  find  a  distrust  of  republican  gov 
ernment  prevalent  in  society,  and  to  hear  a  prefer 
ence  for  the  monarchical  form  frequently  ex 
pressed.  In  the  cabinet  itself,  where  Hamilton 
dominated  and  Knox  echoed  his  opinions,  the  re 
public  was  accepted  rather  as  a  temporary  ex 
pedient  than  as  a  final  good. 

Jefferson  and  Hamilton,  representing  diverse 
and  incompatible  tendencies,  soon  found  themselves 
in  ill-accord,  and  their  discussions  in  the  cabinet 
became  vehement.  They  differed  in  some  degree 
upon  almost  every  measure  of  the  administration, 
and  on  several  of  the  most  vital  their  differences 
became  passionate  and  distressing.  In  May,  1791, 
by  openly  accepting  and  eulogizing  Thomas  Paine's 
"Rights  of  Man,"  a  spirited  reply  to  Burke's  "Re 
flections  on  the  Revolution  in  France,"  Jefferson 
placed  himself  at  the  head  of  the  Republican  party 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON  135 

in  the  United  States.  The  difference  between  the 
two  chief  members  of  the  cabinet  rapidly  developed 
into  a  personal  antipathy,  and  both  of  them 
ardently  desired  to  withdraw.  Both,  however, 
could  have  borne  these  disagreeable  dissensions,  and 
we  see  in  their  later  letters  that  the  real  cause  of 
their  longing  to  resign  was  the  insufficiency  of  their 
salaries.  Jefferson's  estate,  much  diminished  by 
the  war,  was  of  little  profit  to  him  in  the  absence 
of  the  master's  eye.  Gen.  Washington,  who  did 
equal  justice  to  the  merits  of  both  these  able  men, 
used  all  his  influence  and  tact  to  induce  them  to 
remain,  and,  yielding  to  the  president's  persuasions, 
both  made  an  honest  attempt  at  external  agreement. 
But  in  truth  their  feelings,  as  well  as  their  opinions, 
were  naturally  irreconcilable.  Their  attitude  to 
ward  the  French  revolution  proves  this.  Hamilton 
continually  and  openly  expressed  an  undiscriminat- 
ing  abhorrence  of  it,  while  Jefferson  deliberately 
wrote  that  if  the  movement  "had  isolated  half  the 
earth,"  the  evil  would  have  been  less  than  the  con 
tinuance  of  the  ancient  system.  Writing  to  an  old 
friend  he  went  farther  even  than  this:  "Were  there 
but  an  Adam  and  an  Eve  left  in  every  country, 
and  left  free,  it  would  be  better  than  as  it  now  is." 
On  every  point  of  difficulty  created  by  the  French 
revolution  the  disagreement  between  the  two  secre 
taries  was  extreme.  On  other  subjects  there  was 
little  real  accord,  and  it  was  a  happy  moment  for 


136     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

both  when,  on  January  1,  1794,  President  Wash 
ington  accepted  Jefferson's  resignation.  He  left 
office  at  a  fortunate  time  for  his  reputation,  since 
his  correspondence  with  the  English  plenipoten 
tiary,  George  Hammond,  and  the  French  pleni 
potentiary,  Edmond  Genet,  had  just  been  pub 
lished  in  a  large  pamphlet.  Jefferson's  letters  to 
those  gentlemen  were  so  moderate,  so  just,  and  so 
conciliatory  as  to  extort  the  approval  of  his  op 
ponents.  Chief-Justice  Marshall,  an  extreme 
Federalist,  remarks,  in  his  "Life  of  Washington," 
that  this  correspondence  lessened  the  hostility  of 
Jefferson's  opponents  without  diminishing  the  at 
tachment  of  his  friends.  Five  days  after  his  re 
lease  from  office  he  set  out  for  home,  having  been 
secretary  of  state  three  years  and  ten  months. 

All  his  interest  in  the  cultivation  of  the  soil  now 
returned  to  him,  and  he  supposed  his  public  life 
ended  forever.  In  September,  1794,  after  the  re 
tirement  of  Hamilton  from  the  cabinet,  Washing 
ton  invited  Jefferson  to  go  abroad  as  special  envoy 
to  Spain;  but  he  declined,  declaring  that  "no  cir 
cumstances  would  evermore  tempt  him  to  engage  in 
anything  public."  Nevertheless,  in  1796,  Wash 
ington  having  refused  to  serve  a  third  term  in  the 
presidency,  he  allowed  his  name  to  be  used  as  that 
of  a  candidate  for  the  succession.  The  contest 
was  embittered  by  the  unpopularity  of  the  Jay 
treaty  with  Great  Britain.  Jefferson  had  desired 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON  137 

the  rejection  of  the  treaty,  and  he  remained  al 
ways  of  the  opinion  that  by  its  rejection  the  gov 
ernment  of  the  United  States  might  at  length  have 
secured  "a  respect  for  our  neutral  rights"  with 
out  a  war.  Jefferson  had  a  narrow  escape  from 
being  elected  to  the  presidency  in  1796.  John 
Adams  received  seventy-one  electoral  votes,  and 
Jefferson  sixty-eight,  a  result  that,  as  the  law 
then  stood,  gave  him  the  vice-presidency.  In  view 
of  the  duties  about  to  devolve  upon  him,  he 
began  to  prepare,  chiefly  for  his  own  guidance 
in  the  chair  of  the  senate,  his  "Manual  of  Par 
liamentary  Practice,"  a  code  that  still  sub 
stantially  governs  all  our  deliberative  bodies.  He 
deeply  felt  the  importance  of  such  rules,  believing 
that  when  strictly  enforced  they  operated  as  a 
check  on  the  majority,  and  gave  "shelter  and  pro 
tection  to  the  minority  against  the  attempts  of 
power." 

Jefferson  much  enjoyed  the  office  of  vice- 
president,  partly  from  the  interest  he  took  in  the 
art  of  legislation  and  partly  because  his  presidency 
of  the  Philosophical  society  brought  him  into  agree 
able  relations  with  the  most  able  minds  of  the  coun 
try.  He  took  no  part  whatever  in  the  administra 
tion  of  the  government,  as  Mr.  Adams  ceased  to 
consult  him  on  political  measures  almost  immediate 
ly  after  his  inauguration.  The  administration  of 
Adams,  so  turbulent  and  eventful,  inflamed  party 


138     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

spirit  to  an  extreme  degree.  The  reactionary  pol 
icy  of  Hamilton  and  his  friends  had  full  scope, 
as  is  shown  by  the  passage  of  the  alien  and  sedi 
tion  laws,  and  by  the  warlike  preparations  against 
France.  During  the  first  three  years  Jefferson  en 
deavored  in  various  ways  to  influence  the  public 
mind,  and  thus  to  neutralize  in  some  degree  the 
active  and  aggressive  spirit  of  Hamilton.  He  was 
clearly  of  opinion  that  the  alien  and  sedition  laws 
were  not  merely  unconstitutional,  but  were  so  sub 
versive  of  fundamental  human  rights  as  to  justify 
a  nullification  of  them.  The  Kentucky  resolutions 
of  1798,  in  which  his  abhorrence  of  those  laws  was 
expressed,  were  originally  drawn  by  him  at  the  re 
quest  of  James  Madison  and  Col.  W.  C.  Nicholas. 
"These  gentlemen,"  Jefferson  once  wrote,  "pressed 
me  strongly  to  sketch  resolutions  against  the  con 
stitutionality  of  those  laws."  In  consequence  he 
drew  and  delivered  them  to  Col.  Nicholas,  who  in 
troduced  them  into  the  legislature  of  Kentucky, 
and  kept  the  secret  of  their  authorship.  These  res 
olutions,  read  in  the  light  of  the  events  of  1798, 
will  not  now  be  disapproved  by  any  person  of  re 
publican  convictions;  they  remain,  and  will  long 
remain,  one  of  the  most  interesting  and  valuable 
contributions  to  the  science  of  free  government.  It 
is  fortunate  that  this  commentary  upon  the  alien 
and  sedition  laws  was  written  by  a  man  so  firm  and 
so  moderate,  who  possessed  at  once  the  erudition, 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON  139 

wisdom,  and  the  feeling  that  the  subject  demanded. 
Happily  the  presidential  election  of  1800  freed 
the  country  from  those  laws  without  a  convulsion. 
Through  the  unskilful  politics  of  Hamilton  and 
the  adroit  management  of  the  New  York  election 
by  Aaron  Burr,  Mr.  Adams  was  defeated  for  re 
election,  the  electoral  vote  resulting  thus:  Jeffer 
son,  73;  Burr,  73;  Adams,  65;  Charles  C.  Pinck- 
ney,  64 ;  Jay,  i.  This  strange  result  threw  the  elec 
tion  into  the  house  of  representatives,  where  the 
Federalists  endeavored  to  elect  Burr  to  the  first 
office — an  unworthy  intrigue,  which  Hamilton  hon 
orably  opposed.  After  a  period  of  excitement, 
which  seemed  at  times  fraught  with  peril  to  the 
Union,  the  election  was  decided  as  the  people  meant 
it  should  be:  Thomas  Jefferson  became  president 
of  the  United  States  and  Aaron  Burr  vice-presi 
dent.  The  inauguration  was  celebrated  through 
out  the  country  as  a  national  holiday;  soldiers 
paraded,  church-bells  rang,  orations  were  delivered, 
and  in  some  of  the  newspapers  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  was  printed  at  length.  Jefferson's 
first  thought  on  coming  to  the  presidency  was  to 
assuage  the  violence  of  party  spirit,  and  he  com 
posed  his  fine  inaugural  address  with  that  view. 
He  reminded  his  fellow-citizens  that  a  difference 
of  opinion  is  not  a  difference  of  principle.  "We 
are  all  Republicans,  we  are  all  Federalists.  If 
there  be  any  among  us  who  would  wish  to  dissolve 


140     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

this  Union  or  to  change  its  republican  form,  let 
them  stand  undisturbed  as  monuments  of  the  safety 
with  which  error  of  opinion  may  be  tolerated  where 
reason  is  left  free  to  combat  it."  He  may  have 
had  Hamilton  in  mind  in  writing  this  sentence,  and, 
in  truth,  his  inaugural  was  the  briefest  and 
strongest  summary  he  could  pen  of  his  argument 
against  Hamilton  when  both  were  in  Washington's 
cabinet.  "Some  honest  men,"  said  he,  "fear  that 
a  republican  government  cannot  be  strong — that 
this  government  is  not  strong  enough.  I  believe 
this,  on  the  contrary,  the  strongest  on  earth.  I 
believe  it  is  the  only  one  where  every  man,  at  the 
call  of  the  laws,  would  fly  to  the  standard  of  the 
law,  and  would  meet  invasions  of  the  public  order 
as  his  own  personal  concern." 

Among  the  first  acts  of  President  Jefferson  was 
his  pardoning  every  man  who  was  in  durance  under 
the  sedition  law,  which  he  said  he  considered  to  be 
"a  nullity  as  absolute  and  palpable  as  if  congress 
had  ordered  us  to  fall  down  and  worship  a  golden 
image."  To  the  chief  victims  of  the  alien  law, 
such  as  Kosciuszko  and  Volney,  he  addressed 
friendly,  consoling  letters.  Dr.  Priestley,  menaced 
with  expulsion  under  the  alien  law,  he  invited  to 
the  White  House.  He  wrote  a  noble  letter  to  the 
venerable  Samuel  Adams,  of  Massachusetts,  who 
had  been  avoided  and  insulted  during  the  recent 
contest.  He  gave  Thomas  Paine,  outlawed  in 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON  141 

England  and  living  on  sufferance  in  Paris,  a 
passage  home  in  a  national  ship.  He  appointed  as 
his  cabinet  James  Madison,  secretary  of  state; 
Albert  Gallatin,  secretary  of  the  treasury;  Henry 
Dearborn,  secretary  of  war;  Robert  Smith,  secre 
tary  of  the  navy;  Gideon  Granger,  postmaster- 
general;  Levi  Lincoln,  attorney-general — all  of 
whom  were  men  of  liberal  education.  With  his 
cabinet  he  lived  during  the  whole  of  his  two  terms 
in  perfect  harmony,  and  at  the  end  he  declared  that 
if  he  had  to  choose  again  he  would  select  the  same 
individuals.  With  regard  to  appointments  and  re 
movals  the  new  president  found  himself  in  an  em 
barrassing  position,  as  all  our  presidents  have  done. 
Most  of  the  offices  were  held  by  Federalists,  and 
many  of  his  own  partisans  expected  removals 
enough  to  establish  an  equality.  Jefferson  re 
sisted  the  demand.  He  made  a  few  removals  for 
strong  and  obvious  reasons ;  but  he  acted  uniformly 
on  the  principle  that  a  difference  of  politics  was 
not  a  reason  for  the  removal  of  a  competent  and 
faithful  subordinate.  The  few  removals  that  he 
made  were  either  for  official  misconduct,  or,  to  use 
his  own  language,  "active  and  bitter  opposition  to 
the  order  of  things  which  the  public  will  has  estab 
lished."  He  abolished  at  once  the  weekly  levee  at 
the  White  House,  as  well  as  the  custom  of 
precedence  that  had  been  copied  from  the  court 
etiquette  of  Europe.  When  congress  assembled 


142     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

he  sent  them  a  message,  instead  of  delivering  to 
them  a  speech,  which  had  the  effect  of  preventing, 
as  he  remarked,  "the  bloody  conflict  to  which  the 
making  an  answer  would  have  committed  them." 
He  abolished  also  all  the  usages  that  savored  of 
royalty,  such  as  the  conveyance  of  ministers  in 
national  vessels,  the  celebration  of  his  own  birth 
day  by  a  public  ball,  the  appointment  of  fasts  and 
thanksgiving-days,  the  making  of  public  tours  and 
official  visits.  He  refused  to  receive,  while  travel 
ling,  any  mark  of  attention  that  would  not  have 
been  paid  to  him  as  a  private  citizen,  his  object 
being  both  to  republicanize  and  secularize  the  gov 
ernment  completely.  He  declined  also  to  use  the 
pardoning  power  unless  the  judges  who  had  tried 
the  criminal  signed  the  petition.  He  refused  also 
to  notice  in  any  way  the  abuse  of  hostile  news 
papers,  desiring,  as  he  said,  to  give  the  world  a 
proof  that  "an  administration  which  has  nothing 
to  conceal  from  the  press  has  nothing  to  fear 
from  it." 

A  few  of  the  acts  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  administra 
tion,  which  includes  a  great  part  of  the  history  of 
the  United  States  for  eight  years,  stand  out  boldly 
and  brilliantly.  That  navy  which  had  been  created 
by  the  previous  administration  against  France 
Jefferson  at  once  reduced  by  putting  all  but  six 
of  its  vessels  out  of  commission.  He  despatched 
four  of  the  remaining  six  to  the  Mediterranean  to 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON  143 

overawe  the  Barbary  pirates,  who  had  been  prey 
ing  upon  American  commerce  for  twenty  years; 
and  Decatur  and  his  heroic  comrades  executed  their 
task  with  a  gallantry  and  success  which  the  Ameri 
can  people  have  not  forgotten.  The  purchase  of 
Louisiana  was  a  happy  result  of  the  president's 
tact  and  promptitude  in  availing  himself  of  a 
golden  chance.  Bonaparte,  in  pursuit  of  his  early 
policy  of  undoing  the  work  of  the  seven-years'  war, 
had  acquired  the  vast  unknown  territory  west  of 
the  Mississippi,  then  vaguely  called  Louisiana. 
This  policy  he  had  avowed,  and  he  was  preparing 
an  expedition  to  hold  New  Orleans  and  settle  the 
adjacent  country.  At  the  same  time,  the  people 
of  Kentucky,  who,  through  the  obstinate  folly  of 
the  Spanish  governor,  were  practically  denied 
access  to  the  ocean,  were  inflamed  with  discontent. 
At  this  juncture,  in  the  spring  of  1803,  hostilities 
were  renewed  between  France  and  England,  which 
compelled  Bonaparte  to  abandon  the  expedition 
which  was  ready  to  sail,  and  he  determined  to  raise 
money  by  selling  Louisiana  to  the  United  States. 
At  the  happiest  possible  moment  for  a  successful 
negotiation,  Mr.  Jefferson's  special  envoy,  James 
Monroe,  arrived  in  Paris,  charged  with  full  powers, 
and  alive  to  the  new  and  pressing  importance  of 
the  transfer,  and  a  few  hours  of  friendly  parley 
ing  sufficed  to  secure  to  the  United  States  this 
superb  domain,  one  of  the  most  valuable  on  the 


144     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

face  of  the  globe.  Bonaparte  demanded  fifty  mil 
lions  of  francs.  Marbois,  his  negotiator,  asked  a 
hundred  millions,  but  dropped  to  sixty,  with  the 
condition  that  the  United  States  should  assume  all 
just  claims  upon  the  territory.  Thus,  for  the  trivial 
sum  of  little  more  than  $15,000,000,  the  United 
States  secured  the  most  important  acquisition  of 
territory  that  was  ever  made  by  purchase.  Both 
parties  were  satisfied  with  the  bargain.  "This  ac 
cession,"  said  the  first  consul,  "strengthens  forever 
the  power  of  the  United  States,  and  I  have  just 
given  to  England  a  maritime  rival  that  will  sooner 
or  later  humble  her  pride." 

The  popularity  of  the  administration  soon  be 
came  such  that  the  opposition  was  reduced  to  insig 
nificance,  and  the  president  was  re-elected  by  a 
greatly  increased  majority.  In  the  house  of  rep 
resentatives  the  Federalists  shrank  at  length  to  a 
little  band  of  twenty-seven,  and  in  the  senate  to 
five.  Jefferson  seriously  feared  that  there  would 
not  be  sufficient  opposition  to  furnish  the  close  and 
ceaseless  criticism  that  the  public  good  required. 
His  second  term  was  less  peaceful  and  less  for 
tunate.  During  the  long  contest  between  Bona 
parte  and  the  allied  powers  the  infractions  of 
neutral  rights  were  so  frequent  and  so  exasperat 
ing  that  perhaps  Jefferson  alone,  aided  by  his  fine 
temper  and  detestation  of  war,  could  have  kept 
the  infant  republic  out  of  the  brawl.  When  the 


v» 

I 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON  145 

English  ship  "Leopard,"  within  hearing  of  Old 
Point  Comfort,  poured  broadsides  into  the  Ameri 
can  frigate  "Chesapeake,"  all  unprepared  and  un 
suspecting,  killing  three  men  and  wounding 
eighteen,  parties  ceased  to  exist  in  the  United 
States,  and  every  voice  that  was  audible  clamored 
for  bloody  reprisals.  "I  had  only  to  open  my 
hand,"  wrote  Jefferson  once,  "and  let  havoc  loose." 
There  was  a  period  in  1807  when  he  expected  war 
both  with  Spain  and  Great  Britain,  and  his  con 
fidential  correspondence  with  Madison  shows  that 
he  meant  to  make  the  contest  self-compensating. 
He  meditated  a  scheme  for  removing  the  Spanish 
flag  to  a  more  comfortable  distance  by  the  annex 
ation  of  Florida,  Mexico,  and  Cuba,  and  thus 
obtaining  late  redress  for  twenty-five  years  of 
intrigue  and  injury.  A  partial  reparation  by  Great 
Britain  postponed  the  contest.  Yet  the  offences 
were  repeated;  no  American  ship  was  safe  from 
violation,  and  no  American  sailor  from  impress 
ment.  This  state  of  things  induced  Jefferson  to 
recommend  congress  to  suspend  commercial  inter 
course  with  the  belligerents,  his  object  being  "to 
introduce  between  nations  another  umpire  than 
arms."  The  embargo  of  1807,  which  continued  to 
the  end  of  his  second  term,  imposed  upon  the  com 
mercial  states  a  test  too  severe  for  human  nature 
patiently  to  endure.  It  was  frequently  violated, 
and  did  not  accomplish  the  object  proposed.  To 


146     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

the  end  of  his  life  Jefferson  was  of  opinion  that, 
if  the  whole  people  had  risen  to  the  height  of  his 
endeavor,  if  the  merchants  had  strictly  observed 
the  embargo,  and  the  educated  class  given  it  a  cor 
dial  support,  it  would  have  saved  the  country  the 
second  war  of  1812,  and  extorted,  what  that  war 
did  not  give  us,  a  formal  and  explicit  concession  of 
neutral  rights. 

On  March  4,  1809,  after  a  nearly  continuous 
public  service  of  forty  years,  Jefferson  retired  to 
private  life,  so  seriously  impoverished  that  he  was 
not  sure  of  being  allowed  to  leave  Washington 
without  arrest  by  his  creditors.  The  embargo,  by 
preventing  the  exportation  of  tobacco,  had  reduced 
his  private  income  two  thirds,  and,  in  the  peculiar 
circumstances  of  Washington,  his  official  salary 
was  insufficient.  "Since  I  have  become  sensible  of 
this  deficit,"  he  wrote,  "I  have  been  under  an  agony 
of  mortification."  A  timely  loan  from  a  Richmond 
bank  relieved  him  temporarily  from  his  distress, 
but  he  remained  to  the  end  of  his  days  more  or  less 
embarrassed  in  his  circumstances.  Leaving  the 
presidency  in  the  hands  of  James  Madison,  with 
whom  he  was  in  the  most  complete  sympathy  and 
with  whom  he  continued  to  be  in  active  correspond 
ence,  he  was  still  a  power  in  the  nation.  Madison 
and  Monroe  were  his  neighbors  and  friends,  and 
both  of  them  administered  the  government  on  prin 
ciples  that  he  cordially  approved.  As  has  been 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON  147 

frequently  remarked,  they  were  three  men  and 
one  system.  On  retiring  to  Monticello  in  1809, 
Jefferson  was  sixty-six  years  of  age,  and  had 
seventeen  years  to  live.  His  daughter  Martha  and 
her  husband  resided  with  him,  they  and  their 
numerous  brood  of  children,  six  daughters  and  five 
sons,  to  whom  was  now  added  Francis  Eppes,  the 
son  of  his  daughter  Maria,  who  had  died  in  1804. 
Surrounded  thus  by  children  and  grandchildren,  he 
spent  the  leisure  of  his  declining  years  in  endeavor 
ing  to  establish  in  Virginia  a  system  of  education 
to  embrace  all  the  children  of  his  native  state.  In 
this  he  was  most  zealously  and  ably  assisted  by  his 
friend,  Joseph  C.  Cabell,  a  member  of  the  Vir 
ginia  senate.  What  he  planned  in  the  study,  Cabell 
supported  in  the  legislature ;  and  then  in  turn  Jef 
ferson  would  advocate  Cabell's  bill  by  one  of  his 
ingenious  and  exhaustive  letters,  which  would  go 
the  rounds  of  the  Virginia  press.  The  correspond 
ence  of  these  two  patriots  on  the  subject  of  edu 
cation  in  Virginia  was  afterward  published  in  an 
octavo  of  528  pages,  a  noble  monument  to  the 
character  of  both.  Jefferson  appealed  to  every 
motive,  including  self-interest,  urging  his  scheme 
upon  the  voter  as  a  "provision  for  his  family  to 
the  remotest  posterity." 

He  did  not  live  long  enough  to  see  his  system 
of  common  schools  established  in  Virginia,  but  the 
university,  which  was  to  crown  that  system,  a  dar- 


148     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

ling  dream  of  his  heart  for  forty  years,  he  beheld 
in  successful  operation.     His  friend  Cabell,  with 
infinite  difficulty,  induced  the  legislature  to  expend 
$300,000  in  the  work  of  construction,  and  to  ap 
propriate  $15,000  a  year  toward  the  support  of 
the  institution.    Jefferson  personally  superintended 
every   detail   of  the   construction.      He   engaged 
workmen,  bought  bricks,  and  selected  the  trees  to 
be  felled  for  timber.    In  March,  1825,  the  institu 
tion  was  opened  with  forty  students,  a  number 
which  was  increased  to  177  at  the  beginning  of  the 
second  year.      The  institution  has   continued   its 
beneficent  work  to  the  present  day,  and  still  bears 
the  imprint  of  Jefferson's  mind.    It  has  no  presi 
dent,  except  that  one  of  the'  professors  is  elected 
chairman  of  the  faculty.     The  university  bestows 
no  rewards  and  no  honors,  and  attendance  upon  all 
religious  services  is  voluntary.     His  intention  was 
to  hold  every  student  to  his  responsibility  as  a  man 
and  a  citizen,  and  to  permit  him  to  enjoy  all  the 
liberty  of  other  citizens  in  the  same  community. 

Toward  the  close  of  his  life  Jefferson  became 
distressingly  embarrassed  in  his  circumstances.    In 

1814  he  sold  his  library  to  congress  for  $23,000 

about  one  fourth  of  its  value.  A  few  years  after 
ward  he  endorsed  a  twenty-thousand  dollar  note  for 
a  friend  and  neighbor  whom  he  could  not  refuse, 
and  who  soon  became  bankrupt.  This  loss,  which 
added  $1,200  a  year  to  his  expenses,  completed  his 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON  149 

ruin,  and  he  was  in  danger  of  being  compelled  to 
surrender  Monticello  and  seek  shelter  for  his  last 
days  in  another  abode.  Philip  Hone,  mayor  of 
New  York,  raised  for  him,  in  1826,  $8,500,  to  which 
Philadelphia  added  $5,000  and  Baltimore  $3,000. 
He  was  deeply  touched  by  the  spontaneous  gener 
osity  of  his  countrymen.  "No  cent  of  this,"  he 
wrote,  "is  wrung  from  the  tax-payer.  It  is  the 
pure  and  unsolicited  offering  of  love."  He  retained 
his  health  nearly  to  his  last  days,  and  had  the  hap 
piness  of  living  to  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence.  He  died  at  twenty 
minutes  to  one  p.  M.,  July  4,  1826.  John  Adams 
died  a  few  hours  later  on  the  same  day,  saying  just 
before  he  breathed  his  last,  "Thomas  Jefferson  still 
lives."  He  was  buried  in  his  own  grave-yard  at 
Monticello,  beneath  a  stone  upon  which  was  en 
graved  an  inscription  prepared  by  his  own  hand: 
"Here  was  buried  Thomas  Jefferson,  author  of  the 
Declaration  of  American  Independence,  of  the 
Statute  of  Virginia  for  Religious  Freedom,  and 
Father  of  the  University  of  Virginia."  He  died 
solvent,  for  the  sale  of  his  estate  discharged  his 
debts  to  the  uttermost  farthing.  His  daughter 
and  her  children  lost  their  home  and  had  no  means 
of  support.  Their  circumstances  becoming  known, 
the  legislature  of  South  Carolina  and  Virginia  each 
voted  her  a  gift  of  $10,000,  which  gave  peace  and 
dignity  to  the  remainder  of  her  life.  She  died  in 


150     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

1836,  aged  sixty-three,  leaving  numerous  descend 
ants. 

The  writings  of  Thomas  Jefferson  were  pub^ 
lished  by  order  of  Congress  in  1853,  under  the 
editorial  supervision  of  Henry  A.  Washington,  9 
vols.,  8vo  (Washington,  D.  C.,  1853).  This  pub 
lication,  which  leaves  much  to  be  desired  by  the 
student  of  American  history,  includes  his  auto 
biography,  treatises,  essays,  selections  from  his  cor 
respondence,  official  reports,  messages,  and  ad 
dresses.  Two  score  years  later  Prof.  Washington's 
work  was  superseded  by  "The  Writings  of  Thomas 
Jefferson,  comprising  his  Public  Papers  and  his 
Private  Correspondence  including  Numerous  Let 
ters  and  Documents,  now  for  the  First  Time 
Printed,"  edited  by  Paul  L.  Ford,  10  vols.,  8vo 
(New  York,  1894-'99).  Another  edition  of  his 
works  in  20  vols.,  edited  by  Andrew  A.  Lipscomb, 
was  issued  by  the  Thomas  Jefferson  Memorial 
Association  of  the  United  States  (Washington, 
D.  C.,  1904-5).  The  most  extensive  biography  of 
Jefferson  is  that  of  Henry  S.  Randall  (3  vols., 
New  York,  1858) .  See  also  the  excellent  work  of 
Prof.  George  Tucker,  of  the  University  of  Vir 
ginia,  "The  Life  of  Thomas  Jefferson"  (2  vols., 
Philadelphia  and  London,  1837) ;  "The  Life  of 
Thomas  Jefferson,"  by  James  Parton  (Boston, 
1874);  and  "Thomas  Jefferson,"  by  John  T. 
•Morse,  Jr.,  "American  Statesmen"  series  (Bos- 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON  151 

ton,  1883).  A  work  of  singular  interest  is 
"The  Domestic  Life  of  Thomas  Jefferson,"  by 
his  great-granddaughter,  Sarah  N.  Randolph 
(New  York,  1871) .  Jefferson's  "Manual  of  Par 
liamentary  Practice"  has  been  repeatedly  repub- 
lished;  the  Washington  edition  of  1871  is  among 
the  most  recent.  Consult  also  the  "Memoirs,  Cor 
respondence,  and  Miscellanies  of  Thomas  Jeffer 
son,"  by  Thomas  J.  Randolph  (4  vols.,  Boston, 
1830),  and  the  "History  of  the  United  States,  by 
Henry  Adams,  Vols.  I  to  IV,  Jefferson's  Adminis 
tration,  1801-1809"  (New  York,  1889,  1890). 
The  lovers  of  detail  must  not  overlook  "Jefferson 
at  Monticello,"  compiled  by  Rev.  Hamilton  W. 
Pierson,  D.  D.,  of  Kentucky,  from  conversations 
with  Edmund  Bacon,  who  was  for  twenty  years 
Jefferson's  steward  and  overseer.  The  correspond 
ence  between  Jefferson  and  Cabell  upon  education 
in  Virginia  is  very  rare. 

The  portraits  of  Jefferson,  which  were  as  numer 
ous  in  his  own  time  as  those  of  a  reigning  monarch 
usually  are,  may  well  baffle  the  inquirer  who  would 
know  the  express  image  of  his  face  and  person. 
They  differ  greatly  from  one  another,  as  in  truth 
he  changed  remarkably  in  appearance  as  he  ad 
vanced  in  life,  being  in  youth  raw-boned,  freckled, 
and  somewhat  ungainly,  in  early  manhood  better 
looking,  and  in  later  life  becoming  almost  hand 
some — in  friendly  eyes.  The  portrait  by  Rem- 


152     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

brandt  Peale,  taken  in  1803,  which  now  hangs  in 
the  library  of  the  New  York  historical  society,  is 
perhaps  the  most  pleasing  of  the  later  pictures  of 
him  now  accessible.  The  portrait  by  Mather 
Brown,  painted  for  John  Adams  in  1786,  and  en 
graved  for  this  work,  has  the  merit  of  presenting 
him  in  the  prime  of  his  years.  Daniel  Webster's 
minute  description  of  his  countenance  and  figure 
at  fourscore  was  not  accepted  by  Mr.  Jefferson's 
grandchildren  as  conveying  the  true  impression  of 
the  man.  "Never  in  my  life,"  wrote  one  of  them, 
"did  I  see  his  countenance  distorted  by  a  single  bad 
passion  or  unworthy  feeling.  I  have  seen  the  ex 
pression  of  suffering,  bodily  and  mental,  of  grief, 
pain,  sadness,  just  indignation,  disappointment, 
disagreeable  surprise,  and  displeasure,  but  never  of 
anger,  impatience,  peevishness,  discontent,  to  say 
nothing  of  worse  or  more  ignoble  emotions.  To 
the  contrary,  it  was  impossible  to  look  on  his  face 
without  being  struck  with  its  benevolent,  intelligent, 
cheerful,  and  placid  expression.  It  was  at  once 
intellectual,  good,  kind,  and  pleasant,  whilst  his  tall, 
spare  figure  spoke  of  health,  activity,  and  that 
helpfulness,  that  power  and  will,  'never  to  trouble 
another  for  what  he  could  do  himself,'  which 
marked  his  character." 

In  April,  1913,  a  noble  building  was  completed 
in  honor  of  Jefferson  by  the  State  of  Missouri  in 
Forest  Park,  St.  Louis,  at  a  cost  of  almost  half  a 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON  153 

million  dollars,  and  containing,  in  its  central  hall,  a 
colossal  seated  statue  of  our  third  president.  It  was 
dedicated  as  a  memorial  of  the  Louisiana  Purchase 
on  the  last  day  of  April.  On  May  1,  the  Missouri 
Historical  Society,  now  occupying  the  building, 
also  held  a  dedication  meeting,  the  chief  feature  of 
which  was  an  address  by  James  Grant  Wilson,  of 
New  York,  whose  subject  was  "Two  Makers  of 
American  History — Lincoln  and  Grant." 

His  wife,  MARTHA  WAYLES,  born  in  Charles 
City  County,  Va.,  October  19,  1748;  died  at  Monti- 
cello,  near  Charlottesville,  Va.,  September  6,  1782, 
was  the  daughter  of  John  Wayles,  a  wealthy  law 
yer,  from  whom  she  inherited  a  large  property. 
Her  first  husband,  Bathurst  Skelton,  died  before 
she  was  twenty  years  of  age,  and  Mr.  Jefferson 
was  one  of  her  many  suitors.  She  is  described  as 
very  beautiful,  a  little  above  middle  height,  auburn- 
haired,  and  of  a  dignified  carriage.  She  was  well 
educated  for  her  day,  and  a  constant  reader. 
Previous  to  her  second  marriage,  while  her  mind 
seemed  still  undecided  as  to  which  of  her  many 
lovers  would  be  accepted,  two  of  them  met  acci 
dentally  in  the  hall  of  her  father's  house.  They 
were  about  to  enter  the  drawing-room  when  the 
sound  of  music  caught  their  ear.  The  voices  of 
Jefferson  and  Mrs.  Skelton,  accompanied  by  her 
harpsichord  and  his  violin,  were  recognized,  and  the 


154     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

disconcerted  lovers,  after  exchanging  a  glance, 
took  their  hats  and  departed.  She  married  Mr. 
Jefferson  in  1772.  He  retained  a  romantic  devo 
tion  for  her  throughout  his  life,  and  because  of 
her  failing  health  refused  foreign  appointments  in 
1776,  and  again  in  1781,  having  promised  that  he 
would  accept  no  public  office  that  would  involve 
their  separation.  For  four  months  previous  to  her 
death  he  was  never  out  of  calling,  and  he  was  in 
sensible  for  several  hours  after  that  event.  Two 
of  their  children  died  in  infancy,  Martha,  Mary, 
and  Lucy  Elizabeth  surviving,  the  latter  dying  in 
early  girlhood. 

MARTHA,  born  at  Monticello  in  September,  1772 ; 
died  in  Albemarle  County,  Va.,  September  27, 
1836,  after  the  death  of  her  mother  accompanied 
her  father  to  Europe  in  1784  and  remained  several 
years  in  a  convent,  until  her  desire  to  adopt  a  re 
ligious  life  induced  her  father  to  remove  her  from 
the  school.  In  the  autumn  of  the  same  year  (1789) 
she  married  her  cousin,  Thomas  Mann  Randolph, 
afterward  governor  of  Virginia,  and,  being  en 
grossed  with  the  cares  of  her  large  family,  passed 
only  a  portion  of  her  time  in  the  White  House, 
which  she  visited  with  her  husband  and  children  in 
1802,  with  her  sister  in  1803,  and  during  the  winter 
of  1805-'6.  After  the  retirement  of  Mr.  Jeffer 
son  she  devoted  much  of  her  life  to  his  declining 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON  155 

years.  He  describes  her  as  the  "cherished  com 
panion  of  his  youth  and  the  nurse  of  his  old  age," 
and  shortly  before  his  death  remarked  that  the  "last 
pang  of  life  was  parting  with  her."  After  the 
business  reverses  and  the  death  of  her  father  and 
husband,  she  contemplated  establishing  a  school, 
but  was  relieved  from  the  necessity  by  a  donation 
of  $10,000  each  from  South  Carolina  and  Virginia. 
She  left  a  large  family  of  sons  and  daughters, 
whom  she  carefully  educated. 

There  is  no  known  portrait  of  Mrs.  Jefferson. 
— Her  sister,  MARY,  born  at  Monticello,  August  1, 
1778;  died  in  Albemarle  County,  Va.,  April  17, 
1804,  was  also  educated  in  the  convent  at  Panthe- 
mont,  France,  and  is  described,  in  a  letter  of  Mrs. 
Abigail  Adams,  "as  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and 
remarkable  children  she  had  ever  known."  She 
married  her  cousin,  John  Wayles  Eppes,  early  in 
life,  but  was  prevented  by  delicate  health  from  the 
enjoyment  of  social  life.  She  spent  the  second 
winter  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  first  term  with  her  sister 
as  mistress  of  the  White  House.  She  left  two  chil 
dren,  one  of  whom,  Francis,  survived. — Jefferson's 
last  surviving  granddaughter,  Mrs.  Septima  Ran 
dolph  Meikleham,  died  in  Washington,  D.  C.,  on 
September  16,  1887.  See  "The  Domestic  Life  of 
Thomas  Jefferson,"  by  Miss  Sarah  N.  Randolph 
(New  York,  1871). 


JAMES    MADISON 

BY 

JOHN  FISKE 


JAMES  MADISON 

JAMES  MADISON,,  fourth  president  of  the  United 
States,  born  in  Port  Conway,  Va.,  March  16,  1751; 
died  at  Montpelier,  Orange  County,  Va.,  June  28, 
1836.  His  earliest  paternal  ancestor  in  Virginia 
seems  to  have  been  John  Madison,  who,  in  1653, 
took  out  a  patent  for  land  between  the  North  and 
York  rivers  on  Chesapeake  bay.  There  was  a  Capt. 
Isaac  Madison  in  Virginia  in  1623-'5,  but  his  re 
lationship  to  John  Madison  is  matter  of  doubt. 
John's  son,  named  also  John,  was  father  of  Am 
brose  Madison,  who  married,  August  24,  1721, 
Frances,  daughter  of  James  Taylor,  of  Orange 
County,  Va.  Frances  had  four  brothers,  one  of 
whom,  Zachary,  was  grandfather  of  Zachary  Tay 
lor,  twelfth  president  of  the  United  States.  The 
eldest  child  of  Ambrose  and  Frances  was  James 
Madison,  born  March  27,  1723,  who  married,  Sep 
tember  15,  1749,  Nelly  Conway,  of  Port  Conway. 
The  eldest  child  of  James  and  Nelly  was  James, 
the  subject  of  this  biography,  who  was  the  first  of 
twelve  children.  His  ancestors,  as  he  says  him 
self  in  a  note  furnished  to  Dr.  Lyman  C.  Draper 
in  1834,  "were  not  among  the  most  wealthy/of  the 

159 


160     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

country,  but  in  independent  and  comfortable  cir 
cumstances."  James's  education  was  begun  at  an 
excellent  school  kept  by  a  Scotchman  named 
Donald  Robertson,  and  his  studies,  preparatory  for 
college,  were  completed  at  home  under  the  care  of 
the  Rev.  Thomas  Martin,  clergyman  of  the  parish. 
He  was  graduated  at  Princeton  in  1772,  and  re 
mained  there  another  year,  devoting  himself  to  the 
study  of  Hebrew. 

On  returning  home,  he  occupied  himself  with  his 
tory,  law,  and  theology,  while  teaching  his  brothers 
and  sisters.  Of  the  details  of  his  youthful  studies 
little  is  known,  but  his  industry  must  have  been 
very  great;  for,  in  spite  of  the  early  age  at  which 
he  became  absorbed  in  the  duties  of  public  life, 
the  range  and  solidity  of  his  acquirements  were 
extraordinary.  For  minute  and  thorough  knowl 
edge  of  ancient  and  modern  history  and  of  consti 
tutional  law  he  was  unequalled  among  the  Ameri 
cans  of  the  Revolutionary  period;  only  Hamilton, 
and  perhaps  Ellsworth  and  Marshall,  approached 
him  in  this  regard.  For  precocity  of  mental  de 
velopment  he  resembled  Hamilton  and  the  younger 
Pitt,  and,  like  Washington,  he  was  distinguished 
in  youth  for  soundness  of  judgment,  keenness  of 
perception,  and  rare  capacity  for  work.  Along 
with  these  admirable  qualities,  his  lofty  integrity 
and  his  warm  interest  in  public  affairs  were  well 
known  to  the  people  of  Orange,  so  that  when,  in 


Prom  the  painting  by  Gilbert  Stuart,  owned  by  T.  Jefferson  Ccolidge 


JAMES    MADISON  161 

the  autumn  of  1774,  it  was  thought  necessary  to 
appoint  a  committee  of  safety,  Madison  was  its 
youngest  member.  Early  in  1776  he  was  chosen 
a  delegate  to  the  State  convention,  which  met  at 
Williamsburg  in  May.  The  first  business  of  the 
convention  was  to  instruct  the  Virginia  delegation 
in  the  Continental  congress  with  regard  to  an  im 
mediate  declaration  of  independence. 

Next  came  the  work  of  making  a  constitution 
for  the  state,  and  Madison  was  one  of  the  special 
committee  appointed  to  deal  with  this  problem. 
Here  one  of  his  first  acts  was  highly  characteristic. 
Religious  liberty  was  a  matter  that  strongly  en 
listed  his  feelings.  When  it  was  proposed  that, 
under  the  new  constitution,  "all  men  should  enjoy 
the  fullest  toleration  in  the  exercise  of  religion, 
according  to  the  dictates  of  conscience,"  Madison 
pointed  out  that  this  provision  did  not  go  to  the 
root  of  the  matter.  The  free  exercise  of  religion, 
according  to  the  dictates  of  conscience,  is  some 
thing  which  every  man  may  demand  as  a  right,  not 
something  for  which  he  must  ask  as  a  privilege. 
To  grant  to  the  state  the  power  of  tolerating  is 
implicitly  to  grant  to  it  the  power  of  prohibiting, 
whereas  Madison  would  deny  to  it  any  jurisdiction 
whatever  in  the  matter  of  religion.  The  clause  in 
the  bill  of  rights,  as  finally  adopted  at  his  sug 
gestion,  accordingly  declares  that  "all  men  are 
equally  entitled  to  the  free  exercise  of  religion, 


162     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

according  to  the  dictates  of  conscience."  The  inci 
dent  illustrates  not  only  Madison's  liberality  of 
spirit,  but  also  his  precision  and  forethought  in  so 
drawing  up  an  instrument  as  to  make  it  mean  all 
that  it  was  intended  to  mean.  In  his  later  career 
these  qualities  were  especially  brilliant  and  useful. 
Madison  was  elected  a  member  of  the  first  legis 
lature  under  the  new  state  constitution,  but  he 
failed  of  re-election  because  he  refused  to  solicit 
votes  or  to  furnish  whiskey  for  thirsty  voters.  The 
new  legislature  then  elected  him  a  member  of  the 
governor's  council,  and  in  1780  he  was  sent  as  dele 
gate  to  the  Continental  congress. 

The  high  consideration  in  which  he  was  held 
showed  itself  in  the  number  of  important  commit 
tees  to  which  he  was  appointed.  As  chairman  of 
a  committee  for  drawing  up  instructions  for  John 
Jay,  then  minister  at  the  court  of  Madrid,  he  in 
sisted  that,  in  making  a  treaty  with  Spain,  our 
right  to  the  free  navigation  of  the  Mississippi  river 
should  on  no  account  be  surrendered.  Mr.  Jay  was 
instructed  accordingly,  but  toward  the  end  of  1780 
the  pressure  of  the  war  upon  the  southern  states 
increased  the  desire  for  an  alliance  with  Spain  to 
such  a  point  that  they  seemed  ready  to  purchase  it 
at  any  price.  Virginia,  therefore,  proposed  that  the 
surrender  of  our  rights  upon  the  Mississippi  should 
be  offered  to  Spain  as  the  condition  of  an  offensive 
and  defensive  alliance.  Such  a  proposal  was  no 


JAMES    MADISON  163 

doubt  ill-advised.  Since  Spain  was  already,  on  her 
own  account  and  to  the  best  of  her  ability,  waging 
war  upon  Great  Britain  in  the  West  Indies  and 
Florida,  to  say  nothing  of  Gibraltar,  it  is  doubtful 
if  she  could  have  done  much  more  for  the  United 
States,  even  if  we  had  offered  her  the  whole  Mis 
sissippi  valley.  The  offer  of  a  permanent  and  in 
valuable  right  in  exchange  for  a  temporary  and 
questionable  advantage  seemed  to  Mr.  Madison 
very  unwise ;  but  as  it  was  then  generally  held  that 
in  such  matters  representatives  must  be  bound  by 
the  wishes  of  their  constituents,  he  yielded,  though 
under  protest.  But  hardly  had  the  fresh  instruc 
tions  been  despatched  to  Mr.  Jay  when  the  over 
throw  of  Cornwallis  again  turned  the  scale,  and 
Spain  was  informed  that,  as  concerned  the  Missis 
sippi  question,  congress  was  immovable.  The  fore 
sight  and  sound  judgment  shown  by  Mr.  Madison 
in  this  discussion  added  much  to  his  reputation. 

His  next  prominent  action  related  to  the  impost 
law  proposed  in  1783.  This  was,  in  some  respects, 
the  most  important  question  of  the  day.  The  chief 
source  of  the  weakness  of  the  United  States  dur 
ing  the  Revolutionary  war  had  been  the  impossi 
bility  of  raising  money  by  means  of  Federal  tax 
ation.  As  long  as  money  could  be  raised  only 
through  requisitions  upon  the  state  governments, 
and  the  different  states  could  not  be  brought  to 
agree  upon  any  method  of  enforcing  the  requisi- 


164     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

tions,  the  state  governments  were  sure  to  prove 
delinquent.  Finding  it  impossible  to  obtain  money 
for  carrying  on  the  war,  congress  had  resorted  to 
the  issue  of  large  quantities  of  inconvertible  paper, 
with  the  natural  results.  There  had  been  a  rapid 
inflation  of  values,  followed  by  sudden  bankruptcy 
and  the  prostration  of  national  credit.  In  1783 
it  had  become  difficult  to  obtain  foreign  loans,  and 
at  home  the  government  could  not  raise  nearly 
enough  money  to  defray  its  current  expenses.  To 
remedy  the  evil  a  tariff  of  five  per  cent,  upon 
sundry  imports,  with  a  specific  duty  upon  others, 
was  proposed  in  congress  and  offered  to  the  sev 
eral  states  for  approval.  To  weaken  as  much  as 
possible  the  objections  to  such  a  law,  its  operation 
was  limited  to  twenty-five  years.  Even  in  this  mild 
form,  however,  it  was  impossible  to  persuade  the 
several  states  to  submit  to  Federal  taxation.  Vir 
ginia  at  first  assented  to  the  impost  law,  but  after 
ward  revoked  her  action.  On  this  occasion  Mr. 
Madison,  feeling  that  the  very  existence  of  the 
nation  was  at  stake,  refused  to  be  controlled  by 
the  action  of  his  constituents.  He  persisted  in 
urging  the  necessity  of  such  an  impost  law,  and 
eventually  had  the  satisfaction  of  seeing  Virginia 
adopt  his  view  of  the  matter. 

The  discussion  of  the  impost  law  in  congress  re 
vealed  the  antagonism  that  existed  between  the 
slave-states  and  those  states  which  had  emancipated 


JAMES    MADISON  165 

their  slaves.  In  endeavoring  to  apportion  equitably 
the  quotas  of  revenue  to  be  required  of  the  sev 
eral  states,  it  was  observed  that,  if  taxation  were 
to  be  distributed  according  to  population,  it  made 
a  great  difference  whether  or  not  slaves  were  to 
be  counted  as  population.  If  slaves  were  to  be 
counted,  the  southern  states  would  have  to  pay  more 
than  their  equitable  share  into  the  treasury  of  the 
general  government;  if  slaves  were  not  to  be 
counted,  it  was  argued  at  the  north  that  they  would 
be  paying  less  than  their  equitable  share.  Conse 
quently  at  that  time  the  northern  states  were  in 
clined  to  maintain  that  the  slaves  were  population, 
while  the  south  preferred  to  regard  them  as  chat 
tels.  The  question  was  settled  by  a  compromise 
that  was  proposed  by  Mr.  Madison;  according  to 
this  arrangement  the  slaves  were  rated  as  popula 
tion,  but  in  such  wise  that  five  of  them  were  counted 
as  three  persons. 

In  1784  Mr.  Madison  was  again  elected  to  the 
Virginia  legislature,  an  office  then  scarcely  inferior 
in  dignity,  and  superior  in  influence,  to  that  of  dele 
gate  to  the  Continental  congress.  His  efforts  were 
steadfastly  devoted  to  the  preparation  and  ad 
vocacy  of  measures  that  were  calculated  to  increase 
the  strength  of  the  Federal  government.  He  sup 
ported  the  proposed  amendment  to  the  articles  of 
confederation,  giving  to  congress  control  over  the 
foreign  trade  of  the  states;  and,  pending  the 


166     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

adoption  of  such  a  measure,  he  secured  in  that  body 
the  passage  of  a  port  bill  restricting  the  entry  of 
foreign  ships  to  certain  specified  ports.  The  pur 
pose  of  this  was  to^  facilitate  the  collection  of  reve 
nue,  but  it  was  partially  defeated  in  its  operation 
by  successive  amendments  increasing  the  number  of 
ports.  While  the  weakness  of  the  general  govern 
ment  and  the  need  for  strengthening  it  were  daily 
growing  more  apparent,  the  question  of  religious 
liberty  was  the  subject  of  earnest  discussion  in  the 
Virginia  legislature.  An  attempt  was  made  to  lay 
a  tax  upon  all  the  people  of  that  state  "for  the 
support  of  teachers  of  the  Christian  religion."  At 
first  Madison  was  almost  the  only  one  to  see  clearly 
the  serious  danger  lurking  in  such  a  tax;  that  it 
would  be  likely  to  erect  a  state  church  and  curtail 
men's  freedom  of  belief  and  worship. 

Mr.  Madison's  position  here  well  illustrated  the 
remark  that  intelligent  persistence  is  capable  of 
making  one  person  a  majority.  His  energetic  op 
position  resulted  at  first  in  postponing  the  measure. 
Then  he  wrote  a  "Memorial  and  Remonstrance," 
setting  forth  its  dangerous  character  with  wonder 
ful  clearness  and  cogency.  He  sent  this  paper  all 
over  the  state  for  signatures,  and  in  the  course  of  a 
twelvemonth  had  so  educated  the  people  that,  in 
the  election  of  1785,  the  question  of  religious  free 
dom  was  made  a  test  question,  and  in  the  ensuing 
session  the  dangerous  bill  was  defeated,  and  in 


JAMES    MADISON  167 

place  thereof  it  was  enacted  "that  no  man  shall  be 
compelled  to  frequent  or  support  any  religious 
worship,  place,  or  ministry  whatsoever,  nor  shall 
be  enforced,  restrained,  molested,  or  burthened  in 
his  body  or  goods,  nor  shall  otherwise  suffer  on 
account  of  his  religious  opinions  or  belief;  but  that 
all  men  shall  be  free  to  profess  and,  by  argument, 
maintain  their  opinions  in  matters  of  religion,  and 
that  the  same  shall  in  nowise  diminish,  enlarge,  or 
affect  their  civil  capacities."  In  thus  abolishing 
religious  tests  Virginia  came  to  the  front  among 
all  the  American  states,  as  Massachusetts  had  come 
to  the  front  in  the  abolition  of  negro  slavery. 
Nearly  all  the  states  still  imposed  religious  tests 
upon  civil  office-holders,  from  simply  declaring  a 
general  belief  in  the  infallibleness  of  the  Bible,  to 
accepting  the  doctrine  of  the  Trinity.  Madison's 
"Religious  Freedom  Act"  was  translated  into 
French  and  Italian,  and  was  widely  read  and  com 
mented  upon  in  Europe.  In  our  own  history  it 
set  a  most  valuable  precedent  for  other  states  to 
follow. 

The  attitude  of  Mr.  Madison  with  regard  to 
paper  money  was  also  very  important.  The  sev 
eral  states  had  then  the  power  of  issuing  promis 
sory  notes  and  making  them  a  legal  tender,  and 
many  of  them  shamefully  abused  this  power.  The 
year  1786  witnessed  perhaps  the  most  virulent  craze 
for  paper  money  that  has  ever  attacked  the  Ameri- 


168     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

can  people.  In  Virginia  the  masterly  reasoning 
and  the  resolute  attitude  of  a  few  great  political 
leaders  saved  the  state  from  yielding  to  the  de 
lusion,  and  among  these  leaders  Mr.  Madison  was 
foremost.  But  his  most  important  work  in  the 
Virginia  legislature  was  that  which  led  directly  to 
the  Annapolis  convention,  and  thus  ultimately  to 
the  framing  of  the  constitution  of  the  United 
States.  The  source  from  which  such  vast  results 
were  to  flow  was  the  necessity  of  an  agreement  be 
tween  Maryland  and  Virginia  with  regard  to  the 
navigation  of  the  Potomac  river,  and  the  collec 
tion  of  duties  at  ports  on  its  banks.  Commissioners 
appointed  by  the  two  states  to  discuss  this  question 
met  early  in  1785  and  recommended  that  a  uniform 
tariff  should  be  adopted  and  enforced  upon  both 
banks.  But  a  further  question,  also  closely  con 
nected  with  the  navigation  of  the  Potomac,  now 
came  up  for  discussion.  The  tide  of  westward 
migration  had  for  some  time  been  pouring  over  the 
Alleghanies,  and,  owing  to  complications  with  the 
Spanish  power  in  the  Mississippi  valley,  there  was 
some  danger  that  the  United  States  might  not  be 
able  to  keep  its  hold  upon  the  new  settlements.  It 
was  necessary  to  strengthen  the  commercial  ties 
between  east  and  west,  and  to  this  end  the  Potomac 
company  was  formed  for  the  purpose  of  improv 
ing  the  navigation  of  the  upper  waters  of  the 
Potomac  and  connecting  them  by  good  roads  and 


JAMES    MADISON  169 

canals  with  the  upper  waters  of  the  Ohio  at  Pitts- 
burg — an  enterprise  which,  in  due  course  of  time, 
resulted  in  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  canal. 

The  first  president  of  the  Potomac  company  was 
George  Washington,  who  well  understood  that  the 
undertaking  was  quite  as  important  in  its  political 
as  in  its  commercial  bearings.  At  the  same  time 
it  was  proposed  to  connect  the  Potomac  and  Dela 
ware  rivers  with  a  canal,  and  a  company  was 
organized  for  this  purpose.  This  made  it  desirable 
that  the  four  states — Virginia,  Maryland,  Dela 
ware,  and  Pennsylvania — should  agree  upon  the 
laws  for  regulating  interstate  traffic  through  this 
system  of  water-ways.  But  from  this  it  was  but  a 
short  step  to  the  conclusion  that,  since  the  whole 
commercial  system  of  the  United  States  confess 
edly  needed  overhauling,  it  might  perhaps  be  as 
wTell  for  all  the  thirteen  states  to  hold  a  convention 
for  considering  the  matter.  ( When  such  a  sug 
gestion  was  communicated  from  the  legislature  of 
Maryland  to  that  of  Virginia,  it  afforded  Mr. 
Madison  the  opportunity  for  which  he  had  been 
eagerly  waiting.  Some  time  before  he  had  pre 
pared  a  resolution  for  the  appointment  of  commis 
sioners  to  confer  with  commissioners  from  the  other 
states  concerning  the  trade  of  the  country  and  the 
advisableriess  of  intrusting  its  regulation  to  the 
Federal  government^  This  resolution  Mr.  Madi 
son  left  to  be  offered  to  the  assembly  by  some  one 


170    LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

less  conspicuously  identified  with  federalist  opin 
ions  than  himself;  and  it  was  accordingly  presented 
by  Mr.  Tyler,  father  of  the  future  president  of 
that  name.    The  motion  was  unfavorably  received 
and  was  laid  upon  the  table,  but  when  the  message 
came  from  Maryland,  the  matter  was  reconsidered 
and  the  resolution  passed.    Annapolis  was  selected 
as  the  place  for  the  convention,  which  assembled  on 
September  11,  1786.     Only  five  states— Virginia, 
Delaware,  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,   and  New 
York — were  represented  at  the  meeting.     Mary 
land,  which  had  first  suggested  the  convention,  had 
seen  the  appointed  time  arrive  without  even  taking 
the  trouble  to  select  commissioners.    As  the  repre 
sentation  was  so  inadequate,  the  convention  thought 
it  best  to  defer  action,  and  accordingly  adjourned 
after  adopting  an  address  to  the  states,  which  was 
prepared  by  Alexander  Hamilton.     The  address 
incorporated  a  suggestion  from  New  Jersey,  which 
indefinitely  enlarged  the  business  to  be  treated  by 
such  convention;  it  was  to  deal  not  only  with  the 
regulation  of  commerce,  but  with  "other  important 
matters." 

Acting  upon  this  cautious  hint,  the  address 
recommended  the  calling  of  a  second  convention, 
to  be  held  at  Philadelphia  on  the  second  Monday 
of  May,  1787.  Mr.  Madison  was  one  of  the  com 
missioners  at  Annapolis,  and  was  very  soon  ap 
pointed  a  delegate  to  the  new  convention,  along 


JAMES    MADISON  171 

with  Washington,  Randolph,  Mason,  and  others. 
The  avowed  purpose  of  the  new  convention  was  to 
"devise  such  provisions  as  shall  appear  necessary  to 
render  the  constitution  of  the  Federal  government 
adequate  to  the  exigencies  of  the  Union,  and  to  re 
port  to  congress  such  an  act  as,  when  agreed  to  by 
them  and  confirmed  by  the  legislatures  of  every 
state,  would  effectually  provide  for  the  same." 
The  report  of  the  Annapolis  commissioners  was 
brought  before  congress  in  October,  in  the  hope 
that  congress  would  earnestly  recommend  to  the 
several  states  the  course  of  action  therein  suggested. 
At  first  the  objections  to  the  plan  prevailed  in 
congress,  but  the  events  of  the  winter  went  far 
toward  persuading  men  in  all  parts  of  the  country 
that  the  only  hope  of  escaping  anarchy  lay  in  a 
thorough  revision  of  the  imperfect  scheme  of  gov 
ernment  under  which  we  were  then  living.  The 
paper-money  craze  in  so  many  of  the  states,  the 
violent  proceedings  in  the  Rhode  Island  legislature, 
the  riots  in  Vermont  and  New  Hampshire,  the 
Shays  rebellion  in  Massachusetts,  the  dispute  with 
Spain  about  the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi,  and 
the  consequent  imminent  danger  of  separation  be 
tween  north  and  south,  had  all  come  together;  and 
now  the  last  ounce  was  laid  upon  the  camel's  back 
in  the  failure  of  the  impost  amendment.  In  Feb 
ruary,  1787,  just  as  Mr.  Madison,  who  had  been 
chosen  a  delegate  to  congress,  arrived  in  New  York, 


172     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

the  legislature  of  that  state  refused  its  assent  to 
the  amendment,  which  was  thus  defeated.  Thus, 
only  three  months  before  the  time  designated  for 
the  meeting  of  the  Philadelphia  convention, 
congress  was  decisively  informed  that  it  would  not 
be  allowed  to  take  any  effectual  measures  for  rais 
ing  a  revenue.  This  accumulation  of  difficulties 
made  congress  more  ready  to  listen  to  the  argu 
ments  of  Mr.  Madison,  and  presently  congress 
itself  proposed  a  convention  at  Philadelphia  iden 
tical  with  the  one  recommended  by  the  Annapolis 
commissioners,  and  thus  in  its  own  way  sanctioned 
their  action. 

The  assembling  of  the  convention  at  Phila 
delphia  was  an  event  to  which  Mr.  Madison,  by 
persistent  energy  and  skill,  had  contributed  more 
than  any  other  man  in  the  country,  with  the  possible 
exception  of  Alexander  Hamilton.  For  the  noble 
political  structure  reared  by  the  convention  it  was 
Madison  that  furnished  the  basis.  Before  the  con 
vention  met  he  laid  before  his  colleagues  of  the 
iVirginia  delegation  the  outlines  of  the  scheme  that 
was  presented  to  the  convention  as  the  "Virginia 
plan."  Of  the  delegates,  Edmund  Randolph  was 
then  governor  of  Virginia,  and  it  was  he  that  pre 
sented  the  plan,  and  made  the  opening  speech  in 
defence  of  it,  but  its  chief  author  was  Madison. 
This  "Virginia  plan"  struck  directly  at  the  root  of 
the  evils  from  which  our  Federal  government  had 


JAMES    MADISON  173 

suffered  under  the  articles  of  confederation.  The 
weakness  of  that  government  had  consisted  in  the 
fact  that  it  operated  only  upon  states  and  not  upon 
individuals.  Only  states,  not  individuals,  were  rep 
resented  in  the  Continental  congress,  which  accord 
ingly  resembled  a  European  congress  rather  than 
an  English  parliament.  The  delegates  to  the  Con 
tinental  congress  were  more  like  envoys  from 
sovereign  states  than  like  members  of  a  legislative 
body.  They  might  deliberate  and  advise,  but  had 
no  means  of  enforcing  their  will  upon  the  several 
state  governments;  and  hence  they  could  neither 
raise  a  revenue  nor  preserve  order.  In  forming  the 
new  government,  this  fundamental  difficulty  was 
met  first  by  the  creation  of  a  legislative  body  repre 
senting  population  instead  of  states,  and  secondly 
by  the  creation  of  a  Federal  executive  and  a  Fed 
eral  judiciary. 

Thus  arose  that  peculiar  state  of  things  so 
familiar  to  Americans,  but  so  strange  to  Europeans 
that  they  find  it  hard  to  comprehend  it:  the  state 
of  things  in  which  every  individual  lives  under  two 
complete  and  well-rounded  systems  of  laws — the 
state  law  and  the  Federal  law — each  with  its  legis 
lature,  its  executive,  and  its  judiciary,  moving  one 
within  the  other.  It  was  one  of  the  longest  reaches 
of  constructive  statesmanship  ever  known  in  the 
world,  and  the  credit  of  it  is  due  to  Madison  more 
than  to  any  other  one  man.  To  him  we  chiefly; 


174     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

owe  the  luminous  conception  of  the  two  co-existing 
and  harmonious  spheres  of  government,  although 
the  constitution,  as  actually  framed,  was  the  result 
of  skilful  compromises  by  which  the  Virginia  plan 
was  modified  and  improved  in  many  important 
points.  In  its  original  shape  that  plan  went  further 
toward  national  consolidation  than  the  constitution 
as  adopted.  It  contemplated  a  national  legislature 
to  be  composed  of  two  houses,  but  both  the  upper 
and  the  lower  house  were  to  represent  population 
instead  of  states.  Here  it  encountered  fierce  oppo 
sition  from  the  smaller  states,  under  the  lead  of 
New  Jersey,  until  the  matter  was  settled  by  the 
famous  Connecticut  compromise,  according  to 
which  the  upper  house  was  to  represent  states,  while 
the  lower  house  represented  population.  Madison's 
original  scheme,  moreover,  would  have  allowed  the 
national  legislature  to  set  aside  at  discretion  such 
state  laws  as  it  might  deem  unconstitutional.  It 
seems  strange  to  find  Madison,  who  afterward 
drafted  the  Virginia  resolutions  of  1798,  now  sug 
gesting  and  defending  a  provision  so  destructive  of 
state  rights.  It  shows  how  strongly  he  was  in 
fluenced  at  the  time  by  the  desire  to  put  an  end  to 
the  prevailing  anarchy.  The  discussion  of  this  mat 
ter  in  the  convention,  as  we  read  it  to-day,  brings 
out  in  a  very  strong  light  the  excellence  of  the  ar 
rangement  finally  adopted,  by  which  the  constitu 
tionality  of  state  laws  is  left  to  be  determined 


JAMES    MADISON  175 

through    the    decisions    of   the    Federal    supreme 
court. 

In  all  the  discussions  in  the  Federal  convention 
Mr.  Madison  naturally  took  a  leading  part.  Be 
sides  the  work  of  cardinal  importance  which  he 
achieved  as  principal  author  of  the  Virginia  plan, 
especial  mention  must  be  made  of  the  famous  com 
promise  that  adjusted  the  distribution  of  repre 
sentatives  between  the  northern  and  the  southern 
states.  We  have  seen  that  in  the  congress  of  1783, 
when  it  was  a  question  of  taxation,  the  south  was 
inclined  to  regard  slaves  as  chattels,  while  the  north 
preferred  to  regard  them  as  population.  Now, 
when  it  had  come  to  be  a  question  of  the  apportion 
ment  of  representation,  the  case  was  reversed:  it 
was  the  south  that  wished  to  count  slaves  as  popu 
lation,  while  the  north  insisted  that  they  should  be 
classed  as  chattels.  Here  Mr.  Madison  proposed 
the  same  compromise  that  had  succeeded  in  congress 
four  years  before;  and  Mr.  Rutledge,  of  South 
Carolina,  who  had  supported  him  on  the  former 
occasion,  could  hardly  do  otherwise  than  come  again 
to  his  side.  It  was  agreed  that  in  counting  popu 
lation,  whether  for  direct  taxation  or  for  repre 
sentation  in  the  lower  house  of  congress,  five  slaves 
should  be  reckoned  as  three  individuals.  In  the 
history  of  the  formation  of  our  Federal  Union  this 
compromise  was  of  cardinal  importance.  With 
out  it  the  Union  would  undoubtedly  have  gone  to 


176     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

pieces  at  the  outset,  and  it  was  for  this  reason  that 
the  northern  abolitionists,  Gouverneur  Morris  and 
Rufus  King,  joined  with  Washington  and  Madi 
son  and  with  the  pro-slavery  Pinckneys  in  subscrib 
ing  to  it.  Some  of  the  evils  resulting  from  this 
compromise  have  led  historians,  writing  from  the 
abolitionist  point  of  view,  to  condemn  it  utterly. 
Nothing  can  be  clearer,  however,  than  that,  in  order 
to  secure  the  adoption  of  the  constitution,  it  was 
absolutely  necessary  to  satisfy  South  Carolina. 
This  was  proved  by  the  course  of  events  in  1788, 
when  there  was  a  strong  party  in  Virginia  in  favor 
of  a  separate  confederacy  of  southern  states.  By 
South  Carolina's  prompt  ratification  of  the  consti 
tution  this  scheme  was  completely  defeated,  and  a 
most  formidable  obstacle  to  the  formation  of  a 
more  perfect  union  was  removed.  Of  all  the  com 
promises  in  American  history,  this  of  the  so-called 
"three-fifths  rule"  was  probably  the  most  impor 
tant:  until  the  beginning  of  the  civil  war  there  was 
hardly  a  political  movement  of  any  consequence 
not  affected  by  it. 

Mr.  Madison's  services  in  connection  with  the 
founding  of  our  Federal  government  were  thus, 
up  to  this  point,  of  the  most  transcendent  kind. 
We  have  seen  that  he  played  a  leading  part  in  the 
difficult  work  of  getting  a  convention  to  assemble; 
the  merit  of  this  he  shares  with  other  eminent  men, 
and  notably  with  Washington  and  Hamilton.  , 


JAMES    MADISON  177 

Then,  he  was  chief  author  of  the  most  fundamental 
features  in  the  constitution,  those  which  trans 
formed  our  government  from  a  loose  confederacy 
of  states  into  a  Federal  nation;  and  to  him  is  due 
the  principal  credit  for  the  compromise  that  made 
the  adoption  of  the  constitution  possible  for  all  the 
states.  After  the  adjournment  of  the  convention 
his  services  did  not  cease.  Among  those  whose  in 
fluence  in  bringing  about  the  ratification  of  the 
constitution  was  felt  all  over  the  country,  he  shares 
with  Hamilton  the  foremost  place.  The  "Fed 
eralist,"  their  joint  production,  is  probably  the 
greatest  treatise  on  political  science  that  has  ever 
appeared  in  the  world,  at  once  the  most  practical 
and  the  most  profound.  The  evenness  with  which 
the  merits  of  this  work  are  shared  between  Madison 
and  Hamilton  is  well  illustrated  by  the  fact  that 
it  is  not  always  easy  to  distinguish  between  the  two, 
so  that  there  has  been  considerable  controversy  as 
to  the  number  of  papers  contributed  by  each.  Ac 
cording  to  Madison's  own  memorandum,  he  was  the 
author  of  twenty-nine  of  the  papers,  while  fifty-one 
were  written  by  Hamilton,  and  five  by  Jay.  The 
question  is  not  of  great  importance.  Very  prob 
ably  Mr.  Madison  would  have  had  a  larger  share 
in  the  work  had  he  not  been  obliged,  in  March, 
1788,  to  return  to  Virginia,  in  order  to  take  part 
in  the  State  convention  for  deciding  upon  the  ratifi 
cation  .of  the  constitution. 


ITS     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

The  opposition  in  Virginia  was  strong  and  well 
organized,  and  had  for  leaders  such  eminent 
patriots  as  Patrick  Henry  and  Richard  Henry  Lee. 
The  debates  in  the  convention  lasted  nearly  a 
month,  and  for  a  considerable  part  of  this  time 
the  outlook  was  not  promising.  The  discussion  was 
conducted  mainly  between  Madison  and  Henry,  the 
former  being  chiefly  assisted  by  Marshall,  Wythe, 
Randolph,  Pendleton,  and  Henry  Lee,  the  latter 
by  Mason,  Monroe,  Harrison,  and  Tyler.  To  Mr. 
Madison,  more  than  to  any  one  else,  it  was  due  that 
the  constitution  was  at  length  ratified,  while  the 
narrowness  of  the  majority — 89  to  79 — bore  wit 
ness  to  the  severity  of  the  contest.  It  did  not  ap 
pear  that  the  people  of  Virginia  were  even  yet  con 
vinced  by  the  arguments  that  had  prevailed  in  the 
convention.  The  assembly  that  met  in  the  follow 
ing  October  showed  a  heavy  majority  of  anti- 
Federalists,  and  under  Henry's  leadership  it  called 
upon  congress  for  a  second  National  convention  to 
reconsider  the  work  done  by  the  first.  Senators 
were  now  to  be  chosen  for  the  first  U.  S.  senate, 
and  Henry,  in  naming  Richard  Henry  Lee  and 
William  Grayson,  both  anti-Federalists,  as  the  two 
men  who  ought  to  be  chosen,  took  pains  to  mention 
James  Madison  as  the  one  man  who  on  no  account 
whatever  ought  to  be  elected  senator.  Henry  was 
successful  in  carrying  this  point.  The  next  thing 
was  to  keep  Mr.  Madison  out  of  congress,  and 


.  £* 


.   I  03 


[  Foe  -simile  letter  from  James  Madison  to  Mrs.  Margaret  Harrison  Smith  ] 


JAMES    MADISON  179 

Henry's  friends  sought  to  accomplish  this  by  means 
of  the  device  afterward  known  as  "gerrymander 
ing";  but  the  attempt  failed,  and  Madison  was 
elected  to  the  first  national  house  of  representatives. 
His  great  knowledge,  and  the  part  he  had  played 
in  building  up  the  framework  of  the  government, 
made  him  from  the  outset  the  leading  member  of 
the  house.  His  first  motion  was  one  for  raising  a 
revenue  by  tariff  and  tonnage  duties.  He  offered 
the  resolution  for  creating  the  executive  depart 
ments  of  foreign  affairs,  of  the  treasury,  and  of 
war.  He  proposed  twelve  amendments  to  the  con 
stitution,  in  order  to  meet  the  objection,  urged  in 
many  quarters,  that  that  instrument  did  not  con 
tain  a  bill  of  rights.  The  first  ten  of  these  amend 
ments  were  adopted  and  became  part  of  the  consti 
tution  in  the  year  1791. 

The  first  division  of  political  parties  under  the 
constitution  began  to  show  itself  in  the  debates 
upon  Hamilton's  financial  measures  as  secretary  of 
the  treasury,  and  in  this  division  we  see  Madison 
acting  as  leader  of  the  opposition.  By  many 
writers  this  has  been  regarded  as  indicating  a 
radical  change  of  attitude  on  his  part,  and  sundry 
explanations  have  been  offered  to  account  for  the 
presumed  inconsistency.  He  has  been  supposed  to 
have  succumbed  to  the  personal  influence  of  Jeffer 
son,  and  to  have  yielded  his  own  convictions  to  the 
desires  and  prejudices  of  his  constituents.  Such 


180     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

explanations  are  hardly  borne  out  by  what  we  know 
of  Mr.  Madison's  career  up  to  this  point;  and, 
moreover,  they  are  uncalled  for.  If  we  consider 
carefully  the  circumstances  of  the  time,  the  pre 
sumed  inconsistency  in  his  conduct  disappears.  The 
new  Republican  party,  of  which  he  soon  became 
one  of  the  leaders,  was  something  quite  different 
in  its  attitude  from  the  anti-Federalist  party  of 
1787-'90.  There  was  ample  room  in  it  for  men 
who  in  these  critical  years  had  been  stanch  Fed 
eralists,  and  as  time  passed  this  came  to  be  more 
and  more  the  case,  until  after  a  quarter  of  a  cen 
tury  the  entire  Federalist  party,  with  the  excep 
tion  of  a  few  inflexible  men  in  New  England,  had 
been  absorbed  by  the  Republican  party.  In  1790, 
since  the  Federal  constitution  had  been  actually 
adopted,  and  was  going  into  operation,  and  since 
the  extent  of  power  that  it  granted  to  the  general 
government  must  be  gradually  tested  by  the  dis 
cussion  of  specific  measures,  it  followed  that  the 
only  natural  and  healthful  division  of  parties  must 
be  the  division  between  strict  and  loose  construc- 
tionists. 

It  was  to  be  expected  that  anti-Federalists  would 
become  strict  constructionists,  and  so  most  of  them 
did,  though  examples  were  not  wanting  of  such 
men  swinging  to  the  opposite  extreme  of  politics, 
and  advocating  an  extension  of  the  powers  of  the 
Federal  government.  But  there  was  no  reason  in 


JAMES    MADISON  181 

the  world  why  a  Federalist  of  1787-'90  must  there 
after,  in  order  to  preserve  his  consistency,  become  a 
loose  obstructionist.  It  was  entirely  consistent  for 
a  statesman  to  advocate  the  adoption  of  the  consti 
tution,  while  convinced  that  the  powers  specifically 
granted  therein  to  the  general  government  were 
ample,  and  that  great  care  should  be  taken  not  to 
add  indefinitely  to  such  powers  through  rash  and 
loose  methods  of  interpretation.  Not  only  is  such 
an  attitude  perfectly  reasonable  in  itself,  but  it  is, 
in  particular,  the  one  that  a  principal  author  of  the 
constitution  would  have  been  very  likely  to  take; 
and  no  doubt  it  was  just  this  attitude  that  Mr. 
Madison  took  in  the  early  sessions  of  congress. 
The  occasions  on  which  he  assumed  it  were,  more 
over,  eminently  proper,  and  afford  an  admirable 
illustration  of  the  difference  in  temper  and  mental 
habit  between  himself  and  Hamilton.  The  latter 
had  always  more  faith  in  the  heroic  treatment  of 
political  questions  than  Madison.  The  restoration 
of  American  credit  in  1790  was  a  task  that  de 
manded  heroic  measures,  and  it  was  fortunate  that 
we  had  such  a  man  as  Hamilton  to  undertake  it. 
But  undoubtedly  the  assumption  of  state  debts  by 
the  Federal  government,  however  admirably  it  met 
the  emergency  of  the  moment,  was  such  a  measure 
as  might  easily  create  a  dangerous  precedent,  and 
there  was  certainly  nothing  strange  or  inconsistent 
in  Madison's  opposition  to  it.  A  similar  explana- 


182     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

tion  will  cover  his  opposition  to  Hamilton's  national 
bank ;  and  indeed,  with  the  considerations  here  given 
as  a  clew,  there  is  little  or  nothing  in  Mr.  Madison's 
career  in  congress  that  is  not  thoroughly  intelli 
gible.  At  the  time,  however,  the  Federalists,  disap 
pointed  at  losing  a  man  of  so  much  power,  mis 
understood  his  acts  and  misrepresented  his  motives, 
and  the  old  friendship  between  him  and  Hamilton 
gave  way  to  mutual  distrust  and  dislike.  Mr. 
Madison  sympathized  with  the  French  revolu 
tionists,  though  he  did  not  go  so  far  in  this  direc 
tion  as  Jefferson.  In  the  debates  upon  Jay's  treaty 
with  Great  Britain  he  led  the  opposition,  and  sup 
ported  the  resolution  asking  President  Washing 
ton  to  submit  to  the  house  of  representatives  copies 
of  the  papers  relating  to  the  negotiations.  The 
resolution  was  passed,  but  Washington  refused  on 
the  ground  that  the  making  of  treaties  was 
intrusted  by  the  constitution  to  the  president  and 
the  senate,  and  that  the  lower  house  was  not  en 
titled  to  meddle  with  their  work. 

At  the  close  of  Washington's  second  administra 
tion  Mr.  Madison  retired  for  a  brief  season  from 
public  life.  During  this  difficult  period  the  coun 
try  had  been  fortunate  in  having,  as  leader  of  the 
opposition  in  congress,  a  man  so  wise  in  counsel, 
so  temperate  in  spirit,  and  so  courteous  in  de 
meanor.  Whatever  else  might  be  said  of  Madison's 
conduct  in  opposition,  it  could  never  be  called 


JAMES    MADISON  183 

factious;  it  was  calm,  generous,  and  disinterested. 
About  two  years  before  the  close  of  his  career  in 
congress  he  married  Mrs.  Dolly  Payne  Todd,  a 
beautiful  widow,  much  younger  than  himself;  and 
about  this  time  he  seems  to  have  built  the  house  at 
Montpelier,  which  was  to  be  his  home  during  his 
later  years.  But  retirement  from  public  life,  in 
any  real  sense  of  the  phrase,  was  not  yet  possible 
for  such  a  man.  The  wrath  of  the  French  govern 
ment  over  Jay's  treaty  led  to  depredations  upon 
American  shipping,  to  the  sending  of  commis 
sioners  to  Paris,  and  to  the  blackmailing  attempts 
of  Talleyrand,  as  shown  up  in  the  X.  Y.  Z. 
despatches.  In  the  fierce  outbursts  of  indignation 
that  in  America  greeted  these  disclosures,  in  the 
sudden  desire  for  war  with  France,  which  went  so 
far  as  to  vent  itself  in  actual  fighting  on  the  sea, 
though  war  was  never  declared,  the  Federalist 
party  believed  itself  to  be  so  strong  that  it  pro 
ceeded  at  once  to  make  one  of  the  greatest  blunders 
ever  made  by  a  political  party,  in  passing  the  alien 
and  sedition  acts.  This  high-handed  legislation 
caused  a  sudden  revulsion  of  feeling  in  favor  of  the 
Republicans,  and  called  forth  vigorous  remon 
strance.  Party  feeling  has,  perhaps,  never  in  this 
country  been  so  bitter,  except  just  before  the  civil 
war. 

A  series  of  resolutions,  drawn  up  by  Mr.  Madi 
son,  was  adopted  in  1798  by  the  legislature  of  Vir- 


184     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

ginia,  while  a  similar  series,  still  more  pronounced, 
drawn  up  by  Mr.  Jefferson,  was  adopted  in  the 
same  year  by  the  legislature  of  Kentucky.  The 
Virginia  resolutions  asserted  with  truth  that,  in 
adopting  the  Federal  constitution,  the  states  had 
surrendered  only  a  limited  portion  of  their  powers ; 
and  went  on  to  declare  that,  whenever  the  Federal 
government  should  exceed  its  constitutional  au 
thority,  it  was  the  business  of  the  state  governments 
to  interfere  and  pronounce  such  action  unconstitu 
tional.  Accordingly,  Virginia  declared  the  alien 
and  sedition  laws  unconstitutional,  and  invited  the 
other  states  to  join  in  the  declaration.  Not  meet 
ing  with  a  favorable  response,  Virginia  renewed 
these  resolutions  the  next  year.  There  was  noth 
ing  necessarily  seditious,  or  tending  toward  seces 
sion,  in  the  Virginia  resolutions;  but  the  attitude 
assumed  in  them  was  uncalled  for  on  the  part  of 
any  state,  inasmuch  as  there  existed,  in  the  Federal 
supreme  court,  a  tribunal  competent  to  decide  upon 
the  constitutionality  of  acts  of  congress.  The  Ken 
tucky  resolutions  went  further.  They  declared  that 
our  Federal  constitution  was  a  compact,  to  which 
the  several  states  were  the  one  party  and  the  Fed 
eral  government  was  the  other,  and  each  party  must 
decide  for  itself  as  to  when  the  compact  was  in 
fringed,  and  as  to  the  proper  remedy  to  be  adopted. 
When  the  resolutions  were  repeated  in  1799,  a 
clause  was  added,  which  went  still  further  and  men- 


JAMES    MADISON  185 

tioned  "nullification"  as  the  suitable  remedy,  and 
one  that  any  state  might  employ.  In  the  Virginia 
resolutions  there  was  neither  mention  nor  intention 
of  nullification  as  a  remedy.  Mr.  Madison  lived  to 
witness  South  Carolina's  attempt  at  nullification 
in  1832,  and  in  a  very  able  paper,  written  in  the 
last  year  of  his  life,  he  conclusively  refuted  the 
idea  that  his  resolutions  of  1798  afforded  any 
justification  for  such  an  attempt,  and  showed  that 
what  they  really  contemplated  was  a  protest  on 
the  part  of  all  the  state  governments  in  common. 
Doubtless  such  a  remedy  was  clumsy  and  imprac 
ticable,  and  the  suggestion  of  it  does  not  deserve 
to  be  ranked  along  with  Mr.  Madison's  best  work 
in  constructive  statesmanship;  but  it  certainly  con 
tained  no  logical  basis  for  what  its  author  unspar 
ingly  denounced  as  the  "twin  heresies"  of  nullifica 
tion  and  secession. 

In  1799  Mr.  Madison  was  again  elected  a  mem 
ber  of  the  Virginia  assembly,  and  in  1801,  at  Mr. 
Jefferson's  urgent  desire,  he  became  secretary  of 
state.  In  accepting  this  appointment,  he  entered 
upon  a  new  career,  in  many  respects  different  from 
that  which  he  had  hitherto  followed.  His  work  as 
a  constructive  statesman,  which  was  so  great  as  to 
place  him  in  the  foremost  rank  among  the  men 
that  have  built  up  nations,  was  by  this  time  sub 
stantially  completed.  During  the  next  few  years 
the  constitutional  questions  that  had  hitherto  occu- 


186     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

pied  him  played  a  part  subordinate  to  that  played 
by  questions  of  foreign  policy,  and  in  this  new 
sphere  Mr.  Madison  was  not,  by  nature  or  training, 
fitted  to  exercise  such  a  controlling  influence  as  he 
had  formerly  brought  to  bear  in  the  framing  of  our 
Federal  government.  As  secretary  of  state,  he  was 
an  able  lieutenant  to  Mr.  Jefferson,  but  his  genius 
was  not  that  of  an  executive  officer  so  much  as  that 
of  a  lawgiver.  He  brought  his  great  historical  and 
legal  learning  to  bear  in  a  paper  entitled,  "An  Ex 
amination  of  the  British  Doctrine  which  subjects 
to  Capture  a  Neutral  Trade  not  open  in  the  Time 
of  Peace."  But  the  troubled  period  that  followed 
the  rupture  of  the  treaty  of  Amiens  was  not  one 
in  which  legal  arguments,  however  masterly, 
counted  for  much  in  bringing  angry  and  insolent 
combatants  to  terms.  In  the  gigantic  struggle  be 
tween  England  and  Napoleon  the  commerce  of  the 
United  States  was  ground  to  pieces  as  between  the 
upper  and  the  nether  millstone,  and  in  some 
respects  there  is  no  chapter  in  American  history 
more  painful  for  an  American  citizen  to  read.  The 
outrageous  affair  of  the  "Leopard"  and  the 
"Chesapeake"  was  but  the  most  flagrant  of  a  series 
of  wrongs  and  insults,  against  which  Jefferson's 
embargo  was  doubtless  an  absurd  and  feeble  pro 
test,  but  perhaps  at  the  same  time  pardonable  as 
the  only  weapon  left  us  in  that  period  of  national 
weakness. 


JAMES    MADISON  187 

Affairs  were  drawing  slowly  toward  some  kind 
of  crisis  when,  at  the  expiration  of  Jefferson's 
second  term,  Mr.  Madison  was  elected  president 
of  the  United  States  by  122  electoral  votes  against 
47  for  Cotesworth  Pinckney,  and  6  for  George 
Clinton,  who  received  113  votes  for  the  vice-presi 
dency,  and  was  elected  to  that  office.  The  oppo 
sition  of  the  New  England  states  to  the  embargo 
had  by  this  time  brought  about  its  repeal,  and  the 
substitution  for  it  of  the  act  declaring  non-inter 
course  with  England  and  France.  By  this  time 
many  of  the  most  intelligent  Federalists,  includ 
ing  John  Quincy  Adams,  had  gone  over  to  the  Re 
publicans.  In  1810  congress  repealed  the  non- 
intercourse  act,  which,  as  a  measure  of  intimida 
tion,  had  proved  ineffectual.  Congress  now  sought 
to  use  the  threat  of  non-intercourse  as  a  kind  of 
bribe,  and  informed  England  and  France  that  if 
either  nation  would  repeal  its  obnoxious  edicts,  the 
non-intercourse  act  would  be  revived  against  the 
other.  Napoleon  took  prompt  advantage  of  this, 
and  informed  Mr.  Madison's  government  that  he 
had  revoked  his  Berlin  and  Milan  decrees  as  far 
as  American  ships  were  concerned;  but  at  the  same 
time  he  gave  secret  orders  by  which  the  decrees 
were  to  be  practically  enforced  as  harshly  as  ever. 
The  lie  served  its  purpose,  and  congress  revived 
the  non-intercourse  act  as  against  Great  Britain 
alone.  In  1811  hostilities  began  on  sea  and  land, 


188     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

in  the  affair  of  Tippecanoe  and  of  the  "President" 
and  "Little  Belt."  The  growing  desire  for  war 
was  shown  in  the  choice  of  Henry  Clay  for  speaker 
of  the  house  of  representatives,  and  Mr.  Madison 
was  nominated  for  a  second  term,  on  condition  of 
adopting  the  war  policy.  On  June  18,  1812,  war 
was  declared,  and  before  the  autumn  election  a 
series  of  remarkable  naval  victories  had  made  it 
popular.  Mr.  Madison  was  re-elected  by  128 
electoral  votes  against  89  for  DeWitt  Clinton,  of 
New  York.  The  one  absorbing  event,  which  filled 
the  greater  part  of  his  second  term,  was  the  war 
with  Great  Britain,  which  was  marked  by  some 
brilliant  victories  and  some  grave  disasters,  includ 
ing  the  capture  of  Washington  by  British  troops, 
and  the  flight  of  the  government  from  the  national 
capital.  Whatever  opinion  may  be  held  as  to  the 
character  of  the  war  and  its  results,  there  is  a  gen 
eral  agreement  that  its  management,  on  the  part 
of  the  United  States,  was  feeble.  Mr.  Madison 
was  essentially  a  man  of  peace,  and  as  the  manager 
of  a  great  war  he  was  conspicuously  out  of  his  ele 
ment.  The  history  of  that  war  plays  a  great  part 
in  the  biographies  of  the  military  and  naval  heroes 
that  figured  in  it ;  it  is  a  cardinal  event  in  the  career 
of  Andrew  Jackson  or  Isaac  Hull.  In  the  biog 
raphy  of  Madison  it  is  an  episode  which  may  be 
passed  over  briefly.  The  greatest  part  of  his  career 
was  finished  before  he  held  the  highest  offices;  his 


JAMES    MADISON  189 

renown  will  rest  chiefly  or  entirely  upon  what  he 
did  before  the  beginning  of  the  19th  century. 

After  the  close  of  his  second  term  in  1817,  Mr. 
Madison  retired  to  his  estate  at  Montpelier,  where 
he  spent  nearly  twenty  happy  years  with  books  and 
friends.  This  sweet  and  tranquil  old  age  he  had 
well  earned  by  services  to  his  fellow-creatures  such 
as  it  is  given  to  but  few  men  to  render.  Among 
the  founders  of  our  nation,  his  place  is  beside 
that  of  Washington,  Hamilton,  Jefferson,  and 
Marshall;  but  his  part  was  peculiar.  He  was  pre 
eminently  the  scholar,  the  profound,  constructive 
thinker,  and  his  limitations  were  such  as  belong  to 
that  character.  He  was  modest,  quiet,  and  reserved 
in  manner,  small  in  stature,  neat  and  refined,  cour 
teous  and  amiable.  In  rough  party  strife  there 
were  many  who  could  for  the  moment  outshine  him. 
He  was  not  the  sort  of  hero  for  whom  people  throw 
up  their  caps  and  shout  themselves  hoarse,  like 
Andrew  Jackson,  for  example;  but  his  work  was 
of  a  kind  that  will  be  powerful  for  good  in  the 
world  long  after  the  work  of  the  men  of  Jackson's 
type  shall  have  been  forgotten.  The  full-page  por 
trait  of  Madison  in  this  chapter  is  from  a  painting 
by  Gilbert  Stuart. 

A  satisfactory  biography  of  Madison  is  still  to 
be  desired.  His  interesting  account  of  the  Federal 
convention  is  published  in  Elliot's  "Debates  on  the 
State  Conventions"  (4  vols.,  8vo,  Philadelphia, 


190     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

1861).  See  also  the  "Madison  Papers"  (3  vols., 
Washington,  1840),  and  the  "History  of  the 
United  States  by  Henry  Adams.  Vols.  V  to  IX, 
Madison's  Administration,  1809-1817"  (New  York, 
1890,  1891).  A  complete  edition  of  his  writings, 
edited  by  Gaillard  Hunt,  in  9  octavo  volumes,  ap 
peared  in  New  York  in  1900-1910.  For  biog 
raphies  there  is  the  cumbrous  work  of  William  C. 
Rives  (3  vols.,  Boston,  1859-'68),  and  the  sketch 
by  Sydney  Howard  Gay  in  the  "American  States 
men"  series  (Boston,  1884). 

His  wife,  DOROTHY  PAYNE,,  born  in  North  Caro 
lina,  May  20,  1772;  died  in  Washington,  D.  C., 
July  12,  1849,  was  a  granddaughter  of  John 
Payne,  an  English  gentleman  who  migrated  to  Vir 
ginia  early  in  the  18th  century.  He  married  Anna 
Fleming,  granddaughter  of  Sir  Thomas  Fleming, 
one  of  the  early  settlers  of  Jamestown.  His  son, 
the  second  John  Payne,  Dorothy's  father,  married 
Mary  Coles,  first  cousin  to  Patrick  Henry. 
Dorothy  was  brought  up  as  a  Quaker,  and  at  the 
age  of  nineteen  married  John  Todd,  a  Pennsyl 
vania  lawyer  and  member  of  the  Society  of  Friends. 
Mr.  Todd  died  in  the  dreadful  yellow-fever  pes 
tilence  at  Philadelphia  in  1793.  Some  time  in 
1794  Mrs.  Todd  met  Mr.  Madison,  and  in  Septem 
ber  of  that  year  they  were  married,  to  the  delight 
of  President  Washington  and  his  wife,  who  felt  a 


JAMES    MADISON  191 

keen  interest  in  both.  Their  married  life  of  forty- 
two  years  was  one  of  unclouded  happiness.  Mrs. 
Madison  was  a  lady  of  extraordinary  beauty  and 
rare  accomplishments.  Her  "Memoirs  and  Let 
ters"  (Boston,  1887)  make  a  very  interesting  book. 


JAMES    MONROE 

BY 

DANIEL  C.  GILMAN 


JAMES  MONROE 

JAMES  MONROE,  fifth  president  of  the  United 
States,  born  in  Westmoreland  County,  Va.,  April 
28,  1758;  died  in  New  York  City,  July  4,  1831. 
Although  the  attempts  to  trace  his  pedigree  have 
not  been  successful,  it  appears  certain  that  the 
Monroe  family  came  to  Virginia  as  early  as  1650, 
and  that  they  were  of  Scottish  origin.  James  Mon 
roe's  father  was  Spence  Monroe,  and  his  mother 
was  Eliza,  sister  of  Judge  Joseph  Jones,  twice  a 
delegate  from  Virginia  to  the  Continental  congress. 
The  boyhood  of  the  future  president  was  passed  in 
his  native  county,  a  neighborhood  famous  for  early 
manifestations  of  patriotic  fervor.  His  earliest 
recollections  must  have  been  associated  with  public 
remonstrances  against  the  stamp-act  (in  1766), 
and  with  the  reception  (in  1769)  of  a  portrait  of 
Lord  Chatham,  which  was  sent  to  the  gentlemen 
of  Westmoreland,  from  London,  by  one  of  their 
correspondents,  Edmund  Jennings,  of  Lincoln's 
Inn.  To  the  College  of  William  and  Mary,  then 
rich  and  prosperous,  James  Monroe  was  sent;  but 
soon  after  his  student  life  began  it  was  interrupted 
by  the  Revolutionary  war.  Three  members  of  the 

195 


196     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

faculty  and  twenty-five  or  thirty  students,  Monroe 
among  them,  entered  the  military  service.  He 
joined  the  army  in  1776  at  the  headquarters  of 
Washington  in  New  York,  as  a  lieutenant  in  the 
3d  Virginia  regiment  under  Col.  Hugh  Mercer. 
He  was  with  the  troops  at  Harlem,  at  White 
Plains,  and  at  Trenton,  where,  in  leading  the  ad 
vance  guard,  he  was  wounded  in  the  shoulder. 
During  1777-'8  he  served  as  a  volunteer  aide,  with 
the  rank  of  major,  on  the  staff  of  the  Earl  of  Stir 
ling,  and  took  part  in  the  battles  of  the  Brandy- 
wine,  Germantown,  and  Monmouth.  After  these 
services  he  was  commended  by  Washington  for  a 
commission  in  the  state  troops  of  Virginia,  but 
without  success.  He  formed  the  acquaintance  of 
Gov.  Jeff  erson,  and  was  sent  by  him  as  a  military 
commissioner  to  collect  information  in  regard  to 
the  condition  and  prospects  of  the  southern  army. 
He  thus  attained  the  rank  of  lieutenant-colonel; 
but  his  services  in  the  field  were  completely  inter 
rupted,  to  his  disappointment  and  chagrin. 

His  uncle,  Judge  Jones,  at  all  times  a  trusted 
and  intimate  counsellor,  then  wrote  to  him:  "You 
do  well  to  cultivate  the  friendship  of  Mr.  Jefferson 
.  .  .  and  while  you  continue  to  deserve  his  esteem 
he  will  not  withdraw  his  countenance."  The  future 
proved  the  sagacity  of  this  advice,  for  Monroe's 
intimacy  with  Jefferson,  which  was  then  estab 
lished,  continued  through  life,  and  was  the  key  to 


From  the  puiuling  by  John  Vanderlyn  in  the  City  Hall,  New  York 


JAMES    MONROE  197 

his  early  advancement,  and  perhaps  his  ultimate 
success.     The  civil  life  of  Monroe  began  on  his 
election  in  1782  to  a  seat  in  the  assembly  of  Vir 
ginia,  and  his  appointment  as  a  member  of  the 
executive  council.     He  was  next  a  delegate  to  the 
4th,  5th  and  6th  congresses  of  the  confederation, 
where,  notwithstanding  his  youth,  he  was  active 
and  influential.    Bancroft  says  of  him  that,  when 
Jefferson  embarked  for  France,  Monroe  remained 
"not  the  ablest  but  the  most  conspicuous  repre 
sentative  of  Virginia  on  the  floor  of  congress.    He 
sought   the    friendship    of   nearly   every   leading 
statesman  of  his  commonwealth,   and   every   one 
seemed  glad  to  call  him  a  friend."     On  March  1, 
1784,  the  Virginia  delegates  presented  to  congress 
a  deed  that  ceded  to  the  United  States  Virginia's 
claim  to  the  northwest  territory,  and  soon  afterward 
Jefferson  presented  his  memorable  plan  for  the 
temporary  government  of  all  the  western  posses 
sions  of  the  United  States  from  the  southern  bound 
ary  (lat.  31°  N.)  to  the  Lake  of  the  Woods.    From 
that  time  until  its  settlement  by  the  ordinance  of 
July  13,  1787,  this  question  was  of  paramount  im 
portance.     Twice  within  a   few  months   Monroe 
crossed  the  Alleghanies  for  the  purpose  of  becom 
ing  acquainted  with  the  actual  condition  of  the 
country.    One  of  the  fruits  of  his  western  observa 
tions  was  a  memoir,  written  in  1786,  to  prove  the 
rights  of  the  people  of  the  west  to  the  free  naviga- 


198     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

tion  of  the  Mississippi.  Toward  the  close  of  1784 
Monroe  was  selected  as  one  of  nine  judges  to  de 
cide  the  boundary  dispute  between  Massachusetts 
and  New  York.  He  resigned  this  place  in  May, 
1786,  in  consequence  of  an  acrimonious  controversy 
in  which  he  became  involved.  Both  the  states  that 
were  at  difference  with  each  other  were  at  variance 
with  Monroe  in  respect  to  the  right  to  navigate  the 
Mississippi,  and  he  thought  himself  thus  debarred 
from  being  acceptable  as  an  umpire  to  either  of  the 
contending  parties  to  whom  he  owed  his  appoint 
ment. 

In  the  congress  of  1785  Monroe  was  interested 
in  the  regulation  of  commerce  by  the  confederation, 
and  he  certainly  desired  to  secure  that  result;  but 
he  was  also  jealous  of  the  rights  of  the  southern 
states,  and  afraid  that  their  interests  would  be  over 
balanced  by  those  of  the  north.  His  policy  was 
therefore  timid  and  dilatory.  A  report  upon  the 
subject  by  the  committee,  of  which  he  was  chair 
man,  was  presented  to  congress  March  28,  1785, 
and  led  to  a  long  discussion,  but  nothing  came  of 
it.  The  weakness  of  the  confederacy  grew  more 
and  more  obvious,  and  the  country  was  drifting 
toward  a  stronger  government.  But  the  measures 
proposed  by  Monroe  were  not  entirely  abortive. 
Says  John  Q.  Adams:  "They  led  first  to  the  par 
tial  convention  of  delegates  from  five  states  at  An 
napolis  in  September,  1786,  and  then  to  the  general 


JAMES    MONROE  199 

convention  at  Philadelphia  in  1787,  which  prepared 
and  proposed  the  constitution  of  the  United  States. 
Whoever  contributed  to  that  event  is  justly  entitled 
to  the  gratitude  of  the  present  age  as  a  public  bene 
factor,  and  among  them  the  name  of  Monroe  should 
be  conspicuously  enrolled." 

According  to  the  principle  of  rotation  then  in 
force,  Monroe's  congressional  service  expired  in 
1786,  at  the  end  of  a  three  years'  term.  He  then 
intended  to  make  his  home  in  Fredericksburg,  and 
to  practise  law,  though  he  said  he  should  be  happy 
to  keep  clear  of  the  bar  if  possible.  But  it  was  not 
long  before  he  was  again  called  into  public  life. 
He  was  chosen  at  once  a  delegate  to  the  assembly, 
and  soon  afterward  became  a  member  of  the  Virgin 
ia  convention  to  consider  the  ratification  of  the  pro 
posed  constitution  of  the  United  States,  which  as 
sembled  at  Richmond  in  1788.  In  this  convention 
the  friends  of  the  new  constitution  were  led  by 
James  Madison,  John  Marshall,  and  Edmund 
Randolph.  Patrick  Henry  was  their  opponent, 
and  James  Monroe  was  by  his  side  in  company  with 
William  Grayson  and  George  Mason. 

In  one  of  his  speeches,  Monroe  made  an  elaborate 
historical  argument,  based  on  the  experience  of 
Greece,  Germany,  Switzerland,  and  New  England, 
against  too  firm  consolidations,  and  he  predicted 
conflict  between  the  state  and  national  authorities, 
and  the  possibility  that  a  president  once  elected 


200     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

might  be  elected  for  life.  In  another  speech  he  en 
deavored  to  show  that  the  rights  of  the  western 
territory  would  be  less  secure  under  the  new  con 
stitutions  than  they  were  under  the  confederation. 
He  finally  assented  to  the  ratification  on  condition 
that  certain  amendments  should  be  adopted.  As 
late  as  1816  he  recurred  to  the  fears  of  a  monarchy, 
which  he  had  entertained  in  1788,  and  endeavored 
to  show  that  they  were  not  unreasonable.  Under 
the  new  constitution  the  first  choice  of  Virginia  for 
senators  fell  upon  Richard  Henry  Lee  and  William 
Grayson.  The  latter  died  soon  afterward,  and 
Monroe  was  selected  by  the  legislature  to  fill  the 
vacant  place.  He  took  his  seat  in  the  senate  De 
cember  6,  1790,  and  held  the  office  until  May,  1794, 
when  he  was  sent  as  envoy  to  France.  Among  the 
Anti-Federalists  he  took  a  prominent  stand,  and 
was  one  of  the  most  determined  opponents  of  the 
administration  of  Washington.  To  Hamilton  he 
was  especially  hostile.  The  appointment  of  Gou- 
verneur  Morris  to  be  minister  to  France,  and  of 
John  Jay  to  be  minister  to  England,  seemed  to  him 
most  objectionable.  Indeed,  he  met  all  the  Fed 
eralist  attempts  to  organize  a  strong  and  efficient 
government  with  incredulity  or  with  adverse  criti 
cism.  It  was  therefore  a  great  surprise  to  him,  as 
well  as  to  the  public,  that,  while  still  a  senator,  he 
was  designated  the  successor  of  Morris  as  minister 
to  France. 


JAMES    MONROE  201 

For  this  difficult  place  he  was  not  the  first  choice 
of  the  president,  nor  the  second ;  but  he  was  known 
to  be  favorably  disposed  toward  the  French  govern 
ment,  and  it  was  thought  that  he  might  lead  to  the 
establishment  of  friendly  relations  with  that  power, 
and,  besides,  there  is  no  room  to  doubt  that  Wash 
ington  desired,  as  John  Quincy  Adams  has  said, 
to  hold  the  balance  between  the  parties  at  home  by 
appointing  Jay,  the  Federalist,  to  the  English  mis 
sion,  and  Monroe,  the  Republican,  to  the  French 
mission.  It  was  the  intent  of  the  United  States 
to  avoid  a  collision  with  any  foreign  power,  but 
neutrality  was  in  danger  of  being  considered  an 
offense  by  either  France  or  England  at  any  mo 
ment.  Monroe  arrived  in  Paris  just  after  the  fall 
of  Robespierre,  and  in  the  excitement  of  the  day  he 
did  not  at  once  receive  recognition  from  the  commit 
tee  of  public  safety.  He  therefore  sent  a  letter  to 
the  president  of  the  convention,  and  arrangements 
were  made  for  his  official  reception  August  15, 1794. 
At  that  time  he  addressed  the  convention  in  terms 
of  great  cordiality  but  his  enthusiasm  led  him  be 
yond  his  discretion.  He  transcended  the  authority 
that  had  been  given  to  him,  and  when  his  report 
reached  the  government  at  home  Randolph  sent  him 
a  despatch,  "in  the  frankness  of  friendship, "criticis 
ing  severely  the  course  that  the  plenipotentiary  had 
pursued.  A  little  later  the  secretary  took  a  more 
conciliatory  tone,  and  Monroe  believed  he  never 


202     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

would  have  spoken  so  severely  if  all  the  despatches 
from  Paris  had  reached  the  United  States  in  due 
order.  The  residence  of  Monroe  in  France  was  a 
period  of  anxious  responsibility,  during  which  he 
did  not  succeed  in  recovering  the  confidence  of  the 
authorities  at  home. 

When  Pickering  succeeded  Randolph  in  the  de 
partment  of  state,  Monroe  was  informed  that  he 
was  superseded  by  the  appointment  of  Charles  C. 
Pinckney.  The  letter  of  recall  was  dated  August 
22, 1796.  On  his  return  he  published  a  pamphlet  of 
500  pages,  entitled  "A  View  of  the  Conduct  of  the 
Executive"  (Philadelphia,  1797) ,  in  which  he  print 
ed  his  instructions,  correspondence  with  the  French 
and  United  States  governments,  speeches,  and  let 
ters  received  from  American  residents  in  Paris. 
This  publication  made  a  great  stir.  Washington, 
who  had  then  retired  from  public  life,  appears  to 
have  remained  quiet  under  the  provocation,  but  he 
wrote  upon  his  copy  of  the  "View"  animadver 
sions  that  have  since  been  published.  Party  feeling, 
already  excited,  became  fiercer  when  Monroe's  book 
appeared,  and  personalities  that  have  now  lost  their 
force  were  freely  uttered  on  both  sides.  Under 
these  circumstances  Monroe  became  the  hero  of  the 
Anti-Federalists,  and  was  at  once  elected  governor 
of  Virginia.  He  held  the  office  from  1799  till  1802. 
The  most  noteworthy  occurrence  during  his  admin 
istration  was  the  suppression  of  a  servile  insurrec- 


JAMES    MONROE  203 

tion  by  which  the  city  of  Richmond  was  threatened. 
Monroe's  star  continued  in  the  ascendant.  After 
Thomas  Jefferson's  election  to  the  presidency  in 
1801,  an  opportunity  occurred  for  returning  Mr. 
Monroe  to  the  French  mission,  from  which  he  had 
been  recalled  a  few  years  previously.  There  were 
many  reasons  for  believing  that  the  United  States 
could  secure  possession  of  the  territory  beyond  the 
Mississippi  belonging  to  France.  The  American 
minister  in  Paris,  Robert  R.  Livingston,  had  al 
ready  opened  the  negotiations,  and  Monroe  was 
sent  as  an  additional  plenipotentiary  to  second,  with 
his  enthusiasm  and  energy,  the  effort  that  had  been 
begun.  By  their  joint  efforts  it  came  to  pass  that 
in  the  spring  of  1803  a  treaty  was  signed  by  which 
France  gave  up  to  the  United  States  for  a  pe 
cuniary  consideration  the  vast  region  then  known 
as  Louisiana.  Livingston  remarked  to  the  pleni 
potentiaries  after  the  treaty  was  signed:  "We  have 
lived  long,  but  this  is  the  noblest  work  of  our  lives." 
The  story  of  the  negotiations  that  terminated  in 
this  sale  is  full  of  romance.  Bonaparte,  Talley 
rand,  and  Marbois  were  the  representatives  of 
France ;  Jefferson,  Livingston,  and  Monroe  guided 
the  interests  of  the  United  States.  The  French 
were  in  need  of  money  and  the  Americans  could 
afford  to  pay  well  for  the  control  of  the  entrance 
to  the  Mississippi.  England  stood  ready  to  seize 
the  coveted  prize.  The  moment  was  opportune ;  the 


204     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

negotiators  on  both  sides  were  eager  for  the  trans 
fer.  It  did  not  take  long  to  agree  upon  the  con 
sideration  of  80,000,000  francs  as  the  purchase- 
money,  and  the  assent  of  Bonaparte  was  secured. 
"I  have  given  to  England,"  he  said,  exultingly,  "a 
maritime  rival  that  will  sooner  or  later  humble  her 
pride."  It  is  evident  that  the  history  of  the  United 
States  has  been  largely  influenced  by  this  trans 
action,  which  virtually  extended  the  national 
domain  from  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  river  to 
the  mouth  of  the  Columbia.  Monroe  went  from 
Paris  to  London,  where  he  was  accredited  to  the 
court  of  St.  James,  and  subsequently  went  to 
Spain  in  order  to  negotiate  for  the  cession  of 
Florida  to  the  United  States.  But  he  was  not  suc 
cessful  in  this,  and  returned  to  London,  where,  with 
the  aid  of  William  Pinkney,  who  was  sent  to  re- 
enforce  his  efforts,  he  concluded  a  treaty  with 
Great  Britain  after  long  negotiations  frequently 
interrupted.  This  treaty  failed  to  meet  the  ex 
pectations  of  the  United  States  in  two  important 
particulars — it  made  no  provisions  against  the  im 
pressment  of  seamen,  and  it  secured  no  indemnity 
for  loss  that  Americans  had  incurred  in  the  seizure 
of  their  goods  and  vessels.  Jefferson  was  so  dis 
satisfied  that  he  would  not  send  the  treaty  to  the 
senate.  Monroe  returned  home  in  1807  and  at  once 
drew  up  an  elaborate  defence  of  his  political  con 
duct.  Matters  were  evidently  drifting  toward  war 


JAMES    MONROE  205 

between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States. 
Again  the  disappointed  and  discredited  diplomatist 
received  a  token  of  popular  approbation.  He  was 
for  the  third  time  elected  to  the  assembly,  and  in 
1811  was  chosen  for  the  second  time  governor  of 
Virginia.  He  remained  in  this  office  but  a  short 
time,  for  he  was  soon  called  by  Madison  to  the 
office  of  secretary  of  state.  He  held  the  portfolio 
during  the  next  six  years,  from  1811  to  1817.  In 
1814-'15  he  also  acted  as  secretary  of  war.  While 
he  was  a  member  of  the  cabinet  of  Madison,  hos 
tilities  were  begun  between  the  United  States  and 
England.  The  public  buildings  in  Washington 
were  burned,  and  it  was  only  by  the  most  strenu 
ous  measures  that  the  progress  of  the  British  was 
interrupted.  Monroe  gained  much  popularity  by 
the  measures  that  he  took  for  the  protection  of  the 
capital,  and  for  the  enthusiasm  with  which  he  prose 
cuted  the  war  measures  of  the  government. 

Monroe  had  now  held  almost  every  important 
station  except  that  of  president  to  which  a  politi 
cian  could  aspire.  He  had  served  in  the  legislature 
of  Virginia,  in  the  Continental  congress,  and  in 
the  senate  of  the  United  States.  He  had  been  a 
member  of  the  convention  that  considered  the  rati 
fication  of  the  constitution,  twice  he  had  served  as 
governor,  twice  he  had  been  sent  abroad  as  a  min 
ister,  and  he  had  been  accredited  to  three  great 
powers.  He  had  left  two  places  in  the  cabinet  of 


206     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

Madison.  With  the  traditions  of  those  days,  which 
regarded  experience  in  political  affairs  a  qualifica 
tion  for  an  exalted  station,  it  was  most  natural  that 
Monroe  should  become  a  candidate  for  the  presi 
dency.  Eight  years  previously  his  fitness  for  the 
office  had  been  often  discussed.  Now,  in  1816,  at 
~  the  age  of  fifty-nine  years,  almost  exactly  the  age 
\jj-  at  which  Jefferson  and  Madison  attained  the  same 
position,  he  was  elected  president  of  the  United 
States,  receiving  183  votes  in  the  electoral  college 
against  34  that  were  given  for  Rufus  King,  the 
candidate  of  the  Federalists.  He  continued  in  this 
office  until  1825.  His  second  election  in  1821  was 
made  with  almost  complete  unanimity,  but  one 
electoral  vote  being  given  against  him.  Daniel  T. 
Tompkins  was  vice-president  during  both  presiden 
tial  terms.  John  Quincy  Adams,  John  C.  Calhoun, 
William  H.  Crawford,  and  William  Wirt  were 
members  of  the  cabinet  during  his  entire  adminis 
tration.  The  principal  subjects  that  engaged  the 
attention  of  the  president  were  the  defences  of  the 
Atlantic  seaboard,  the  promotion  of  internal  im 
provements,  the  conduct  of  the  Seminole  war,  the 
acquisition  of  Florida,  the  Missouri  compromise, 
and  the  resistance  to  foreign  interference  in  Ameri 
can  affairs,  formulated  in  a  declaration  that  is 
called  the  "Monroe  doctrine." 

Two  social  events  marked  the  beginning  and  the 
end  of  his  administration:  first,  his  ceremonious 


JAMES    MONROE  207 

visit  to  the  principal  cities  of  the  north  and  south; 
and,  second,  the  national  reception  of  the  Marquis 
de  Lafayette,  who  came  to  this  country  as  the 
nation's  guest.  The  purchase  of  the  Floridas  was 
brought  to  a  successful  issue,  February  22,  1819, 
by  a  treaty  with  Spain,  concluded  at  Washington, 
and  thus  the  control  of  the  entire  Atlantic  and  Gulf 
seaboard,  from  the  St.  Croix  to  the  Sabine,  was 
secured  to  the  United  States.  Monroe's  influence 
in  the  controversies  that  preceded  the  Missouri  com 
promise  does  not  appear  to  have  been  very  strong. 
He  showed  none  of  the  boldness  which  Jeff erson 
would  have  exhibited  under  similar  circumstances. 
He  took  more  interest  in  guiding  the  national 
policy  with  respect  to  internal  improvements  and 
the  defence  of  the  seaboard.  He  vetoed  the  Cum 
berland  road  bill,  May  4,  1822,  on  the  ground  that 
congress  had  no  right  to  execute  a  system  of  in 
ternal  improvement ;  but  he  held  that  if  such  powers 
could  be  secured  by  constitutional  amendment  good 
results  would  follow.  Even  then  he  held  that  the 
general  government  should  undertake  only  works 
of  national  significance,  and  should  leave  all  minor 
improvements  to  the  separate  states. 

There  is  no  measure  with  which  the  name  of 
Monroe  is  connected  so  important  as  his  enuncia 
tion  of  the  "Monroe  doctrine."  The  words  of  this 
famous  utterance  constitute  two  paragraphs  in  the 
president's  message  of  December  2,  1823.  In  the 


208     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

first  of  these  paragraphs  he  declares  that  the  gov 
ernments  of  Russia  and  Great  Britain  have  been 
informed  that  the  American  continents  henceforth 
are  not  to  be  considered  subjects  for  future  col 
onization  by  any  European  powers.  In  the  second 
paragraph  he  says  that  the  United  States  would 
consider  any  attempt  on  the  part  of  the  European 
powers  to  extend  their  system  to  any  portion  of 
this  hemisphere  as  dangerous  to  our  peace  and 
safety.  He  goes  further,  and  says  that,  if  the  gov 
ernments  established  in  North  and  South  America 
who  have  declared  their  independence  of  European 
control  should  be  interfered  with  by  any  European 
power,  this  interference  would  be  regarded  as  the 
manifestation  of  an  unfriendly  disposition  to  the 
United  States.  These  utterances  were  addressed 
especially  to  Spain  and  Portugal.  They  undoubt 
edly  expressed  the  dominant  sentiments  of  the 
people  of  the  United  States  at  the  time  they  were 
uttered,  and,  moreover,  they  embodied  a  doctrine 
which  had  been  vaguely  held  in  the  days  of  Wash 
ington,  and  from  that  time  to  the  administration 
of  Monroe  had  been  more  and  more  clearly  avowed. 
It  has  received  the  approval  of  successive  adminis 
trations  and  of  the  foremost  publicists  and  states 
men.  The  peace  and  prosperity  of  America  have 
been  greatly  promoted  by  the  declaration,  almost 
universally  assented  to,  that  European  states  are 
not  to  gain  new  dominion  in  America.  For  con- 


JAMES    MONROE  209 

venience  of  reference  the  two   passages  of  the 
message  are  here  quoted: 

"At  the  proposal  of  the  Russian  imperial  gov 
ernment,  made  through  the  minister  of  the  emperor 
residing  here,  full  power  and  instructions  have  been 
transmitted  to  the  minister  of  the  United  States  at 
St.  Petersburg  to  arrange,  by  amicable  negotia 
tion,  the  respective  rights  and  interests  of  the  two 
nations  on  the  northwest  coast  of  this  continent. 
A  similar  proposal  has  been  made  by  his  imperial 
majesty  to  the  government  of  Great  Britain,  which 
has  likewise  been  acceded  to.  The  government  of 
the  United  States  has  been  desirous,  by  this  friendly 
proceeding,  of  manifesting  the  great  value  which 
they  have  invariably  attached  to  the  friendship  of 
the  emperor,  and  their  solicitude  to  cultivate  the 
best  understanding  with  his  government.  In  the 
discussions  to  which  this  interest  has  given  rise,  and 
in  the  arrangements  by  which  they  may  terminate, 
the  occasion  has  been  judged  proper  for  asserting, 
as  a  principle  in  which  the  rights  and  interests  of 
the  United  States  are  involved,  that  the  American 
continents,  by  the  free  and  independent  condition 
which  they  have  assumed  and  maintain,  are  hence 
forth  not  to  be  considered  as  subjects  for  future 
colonization  by  any  European  power.  .  .  .  We 
owe  it,  therefore,  to  candor,  and  to  the  amicable 
relations  existing  between  the  United  States  and 
those  powers,  to  declare  that  we  should  consider 


210     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

any  attempt  on  their  part  to  extend  their  system 
to  any  portion  of  this  hemisphere  as  dangerous  to 
our  peace  and  safety.  With  the  existing  colonies 
or  dependencies  of  any  European  power  we  have 
not  interfered,  and  shall  not  interfere.  But  with 
the  governments  who  have  declared  their  independ 
ence  and  maintained  it,  and  whose  independence 
we  have,  on  great  consideration  and  on  just  princi 
ples,  acknowledged,  we  could  not  view  any  inter 
position  for  the  purpose  of  oppressing  them,  or 
controlling  in  any  other  manner  their  destiny,  by 
any  European  power,  in  any  other  light  than  as  the 
manifestation  of  an  unfriendly  disposition  toward 
the  United  States." 

At  the  close  of  Monroe's  second  term  as  presi 
dent  he  retired  to  private  life,  and  during  the  seven 
years  that  remained  to  him  resided  part  of  the  time 
at  Oak  Hill,  Loudon  County,  Va.,  and  part  of  the 
time  in  the  city  of  New  York.  The  illustration  ac 
companying  this  biography  is  a  picture  of  Oak 
Hill.  He  accepted  the  office  of  regent  in  the 
University  of  Virginia  in  1826  with  Jefferson 
and  Madison.  He  was  asked  to  serve  on  the  elec 
toral  ticket  of  Virginia  in  1828,  but  declined  on 
the  ground  that  an  ex-president  should  not  be 
a  party-leader.  He  consented  to  act  as  a  local 
magistrate,  however,  and  to  become  a  member  of 
the  Virginia  constitutional  convention.  The  ad 
ministration  of  Monroe  has  often  been  designated 


JAMES    MONROE  211 

as  the  "era  of  good  feeling."  Schouler,  the  his 
torian,  has  found  this  heading  on  an  article  that 
appeared  in  the  Boston  "Centinel"  of  July  12, 
1817. 

It  is,  on  the  whole,  a  suitable  phrase  to  indicate 
the  state  of  political  affairs  that  succeeded  to  the 
troublesome  period  of  organization  and  preceded 
the  fearful  strains  of  threatened  disruption  and  of 
civil  war.  One  idea  is  consistently  represented  by 
Monroe  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  his  pub 
lic  life — the  idea  that  America  is  for  Americans, 
that  the  territory  of  the  United  States  is  to  be  pro 
tected  and  enlarged,  and  that  foreign  intervention 
will  never  be  permitted.  In  his  early  youth  Mon 
roe  enlisted  for  the  defence  of  American  inde 
pendence.  He  was  one  of  the  first  to  perceive  the 
importance  of  free  navigation  upon  the  Missis 
sippi  ;  he  negotiated  with  France  and  Spain  for  the 
acquisition  of  Louisiana  and  Florida;  he  gave  a 
vigorous  impulse  to  the  second  war  with  Great 
Britain  in  defence  of  our  maritime  rights  when  the 
rights  of  a  neutral  power  were  endangered;  and 
he  enunciated  a  dictum  against  foreign  interference 
which  has  now  the  force  of  international  law. 
Judged  by  the  high  stations  he  was  called  upon  to 
fill,  his  career  was  brilliant ;  but  the  writings  he  has 
left  in  state  papers  and  correspondence  are  inferior 
to  those  of  Jefferson,  Madison,  Hamilton,  and 
others  of  his  contemporaries.  He  is  rather  to  be 


212     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

honored  as  an  upright  and  patriotic  citizen  who 
served  his  party  with  fidelity  and  never  con 
descended  to  low  and  unworthy  measures.  He  de 
served  well  of  the  country,  which  he  served  faith 
fully  during  his  career.  After  his  retirement  from 
the  office  of  president  he  urged  upon  the  govern 
ment  the  judgment  of  unsettled  claims  which  he 
presented  for  outlays  made  during  his  prolonged 
political  services  abroad,  and  for  which  he  had 
never  received  adequate  remuneration.  During  the 
advance  of  old  age  his  time  was  largely  occupied 
in  correspondence,  and  he  undertook  to  write  a 
philosophical  history  of  the  origin  of  free  govern 
ments,  which  was  published  long  after  his  decease. 
While  attending  congress,  Monroe  married,  in 
1786,  a  daughter  of  Lawrence  Kortright,  of  New 
York.  One  of  his  two  daughters,  Eliza,  married 
George  Hay,  of  Virginia,  and  the  other,  Maria, 
married  Samuel  L.  Gouverneur,  of  New  York. 

A  large  number  of  manuscripts,  including  drafts 
of  state  papers,  letters  addressed  to  Monroe,  and 
letters  from  him,  have  been  preserved.  Most  of 
these  have  been  purchased  by  congress  and  are  pre 
served  in  the  archives  of  the  state  department; 
others  are  still  held  by  his  descendants.  Schouler, 
in  his  "History  of  the  United  States,"  has  made 
use  of  this  material  to  advantage,  particularly  in 
his  account  of  the  administrations  of  Madison  and 
Monroe,  which  he  has  treated  in  detail.  Bancroft, 


JAMES    MONROE  213 

in  his  "History  of  the  Constitution,"  draws  largely 
upon  the  Monroe  papers,  many  of  which  he  prints 
for  the  first  time.  The  eulogy  of  John  Quincy 
Adams  (Boston,  1831)  and  his  diary  afford  the 
best  contemporary  view  of  Monroe's  characteristics 
as  a  statesman.  Jefferson,  Madison,  Webster,  Cal- 
houn,  and  Colonel  Benton  have  each  left  their  ap 
preciative  estimates  of  his  character. 

The  remains  of  James  Monroe  were  buried  in 
Marble  cemetery,  Second  street,  between  First  and 
Second  avenues,  New  York,  but  in  1858  were  taken 
to  Richmond,  Va.,  and  there  reinterred  on  April 
28  in  Hollywood  Cemetery.  See  Samuel  P. 
Waldo's  "Tour  of  James  Monroe  through  the 
Northern  and  Eastern  States,  with  a  Sketch  of 
his  Life"  (Hartford,  1819) ;  "Life  of  James  Mon 
roe,  with  a  Notice  of  his  Administration,"  by  John 
Quincy  Adams  (Buffalo,  1850) ;  "Concise  History 
of  the  Monroe  Doctrine,"  by  George  F.  Tucker 
(Boston,  1885)  ;  and  Daniel  C.  Gilman's  life  of 
Monroe,  in  the  "American  Statesmen"  series  (Bos 
ton,  1883) .  In  this  volume  is  an  appendix  by  J.  F. 
Jameson,  which  gives  a  list  of  writings  pertaining 
to  Monroe's  career  and  to  the  Monroe  doctrine. 
His  writings  in  7  vols.,  edited  by  S.  M.  Hamilton, 
were  published  in  New  York  in  1898-1903.  Presi 
dent  Monroe's  portrait  by  Gilbert  Stuart  is  in  the 
possession  of  Thomas  J.  Coolidge,  of  Massa- 


214     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

chusetts,  late  American  minister  to  France,  and 
that  by  John  Vanderlyn,  which  is  reproduced  in 
this  chapter,  is  in  the  City-hall  New  York. 

His  wife,  ELIZABETH  KORTRIGHT,  born  in  New 
York  City  in  1768;  died  in  London  County,  Va., 
in  1830,  was  the  daughter  of  Lawrence  Kortright, 
a  captain  in  the  British  army.  She  married  James 
Monroe  in  1786,  accompanied  him  in  his  missions 
abroad  in  1794  and  1803,  and  while  he  was  U.  S. 
minister  to  France  she  effected  the  release  of 
Madame  de  Lafayette,  who  was  confined  in  the 
prison  of  La  Force,  hourly  expecting  to  be  exe 
cuted.  On  the  accession  of  her  husband  to  the 
presidency  Mrs.  Monroe  became  the  mistress  of 
the  White  House;  but  she  mingled  little  in  society 
on  account  of  her  delicate  health.  She  is  described 
by  a  contemporary  writer  as  "an  elegant  and 
accomplished  woman,  with  a  dignity  of  manner 
that  peculiarly  fitted  her  for  the  station."  The 
vignette,  which  appears  in  the  group  at  the  end  of 
this  volume,  is  copied  from  the  only  portrait  that 
was  ever  made  of  Mrs.  Monroe,  and  was  executed 
in  Paris  in  1796. 

His  nephew,  JAMES,  soldier,  born  in  Albemarle 
County,  Va.,  September  10,  1799;  died  in  Orange, 
N.  J.,  September  7,  1870,  was  a  son  of  the  presi 
dent's  elder  brother,  Andrew.  He  was  graduated 
at  the  U.  S.  military  academy  in  1815,  assigned  to 


JAMES    MONROE  215 

the  artillery  corps,  and  served  in  the  war  with 
Algiers,  in  which  he  was  wounded  while  directing 
part  of  the  quarter-deck  guns  of  the  "Guerriere" 
in  an  action  with  the  "Mashouda"  off  Cape  de 
Gata,  Spain.  He  was  aide  to  Gen.  Winfield  Scott 
in  1817-'22,  became  1st  lieutenant  of  the  4th 
artillery  on  the  reorganization  of  the  army  in  1821, 
and  served  on  garrison  and  commissary  duty  till 
1832,  when  he  was  again  appointed  Gen.  Scott's 
aide  on  the  Black  Hawk  expedition,  but  did  not 
reach  the  seat  of  war,  owing  to  illness.  He  re 
signed  his  commission  on  September  30,  1832,  and 
entered  politics,  becoming  an  alderman  of  New 
York  City  in  1833,  and  president  of  the  board  in 
1834.  In  1836  he  declined  the  appointment  of  aide 
to  Gov.  William  L.  Marcy.  He  was  in  congress 
in  1839-'41,  and  was  chosen  again  in  1846,  but  his 
seat  was  contested,  and  congress  ordered  a  new 
election,  at  which  he  refused  to  be  a  candidate. 
During  the  Mexican  war  he  was  active  in  urging 
the  retention  in  command  of  Gen.  Scott.  In 
1850-'2  he  was  in  the  New  York  legislature,  and 
in  1852  was  an  earnest  supporter  of  his  old  chief 
for  the  presidency.  After  the  death  of  his  wife 
in  that  year  he  retired  from  politics,  and  spent  much 
of  his  time  at  the  Union  club,  of  which  he  was  one 
of  the  earliest  and  most  popular  members.  Just 
before  the  civil  war  he  visited  Richmond,  and,  by 


216     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

public  speeches  and  private  effort,  tried  to  prevent 
the  secession  of  Virginia,  and  in  the  struggle  that 
followed  he  remained  a  firm  supporter  of  the 
National  government.  He  much  resembled  his 
uncle  in  personal  appearance. 


JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS 

BY 

JOHN  FISKE 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS 

JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS,  sixth  president  of  the 
United  States,  born  in  Braintree,  Mass.,  July  11, 
1767;  died  in  Washington,  D.  C.,  February  23, 
1848.  He  was  named  for  his  mother's  grandfather, 
John  Quincy.  In  his  eleventh  year  he  accompanied 
his  father  to  France,  and  was  sent  to  school  near 
Paris,  where  his  proficiency  in  the  French  language 
and  other  studies  soon  became  conspicuous.  In  the 
following  year  he  returned  to  America,  and  back 
again  to  France  with  his  father,  whom,  in  August, 
1780,  he  accompanied  to  Holland.  After  a  few 
months  at  school  in  Amsterdam,  he  entered  the 
university  of  Leyden.  Two  years  afterward  John 
Adams's  secretary  of  legation,  Francis  Dana,  was 
appointed  minister  to  Russia,  and  the  boy  accom 
panied  him  as  private  secretary.  After  a  stay  of 
fourteen  months,  as  Catharine's  government  re 
fused  to  recognize  Mr.  Dana  as  minister,  young 
Adams  left  St.  Petersburg  and  travelled  alone 
through  Sweden,  Denmark,  and  northern  Germany 
to  France,  spending  six  months  in  the  journey. 
Arriving  in  Paris,  he  found  his  father  busy  with 
the  negotiation  of  the  treaty  of  peace  between 

219 


220     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

Great  Britain  and  the  United  States,  and  was  im 
mediately  set  to  work  as  secretary,  and  aided  in 
drafting  the  papers  that  "dispersed  all  possible 
doubt  of  the  independence  of  his  country."  In 
1785,  when  his  father  was  appointed  minister  to 
England,  he  decided  not  to  stay  with  him  in  Lon 
don,  but  to  return  at  once  to  Massachusetts  in 
order  to  complete  his  education  at  Harvard  col 
lege.  For  an  American  career  he  believed  an 
American  education  to  be  best  fitted.  Consider 
ing  the  immediate  sacrifice  of  pleasure  involved,  it 
was  a  remarkably  wise  decision  in  a  lad  of  eighteen. 
But  Adams's  character  was  already  fully  formed; 
he  was  what  he  remained  throughout  his  life,  a 
Puritan  of  the  sternest  and  most  uncompromising 
sort,  who  seemed  to  take  a  grim  enjoyment  in  the 
performance  of  duty,  especially  when  disagreeable. 
Returning  home,  he  was  graduated  at  Harvard 
college  in  1788,  and  then  studied  law  in  the  office 
of  Theophilus  Parsons,  afterward  chief  justice  of 
Massachusetts.  In  1791  he  was  admitted  to  the 
Suffolk  bar,  and  began  the  practice  of  law,  the 
tedium  of  which  he  relieved  by  writing  occasional 
articles  for  the  papers.  Under  the  signature  of 
"Publicola"  he  criticised  some  positions  taken  by 
Thomas  Paine  in  his  "Rights  of  Man";  and  these 
articles,  when  republished  in  England,  were  gen 
erally  attributed  to  his  father.  In  a  further  series 
of  papers,  signed  "Marcellus,"  he  defended  Wash- 


JOHN    QTJINCY    ADAMS  221 

ington's  policy  of  neutrality;  and  in  a  third  series, 
signed  "Columbus,"  he  discussed  the  extraordinary 
behavior  of  Citizen  Genet,  whom  the  Jacobins  had 
sent  over  to  browbeat  the  Americans  into  joining 
France  in  hurling  defiance  at  the  world.  These 
writings  made  him  so  conspicuous  that  in  1794 
Washington  appointed  him  minister  to  Holland, 
and  two  years  later  made  an  appointment  trans 
ferring  him  to  Portugal.  Before  he  had  started 
for  the  latter  country  his  father  became  president 
of  the  United  States,  and  asked  Washington's 
advice  as  to  the  propriety  of  promoting  his  own 
son  by  sending  him  to  Berlin.  Washington  in 
strong  terms  recommended  the  promotion,  declar 
ing  that  in  his  opinion  the  young  man  would  prove 
to  be  the  ablest  diplomat  in  the  American  service. 
In  the  fall  of  1797  Mr.  Adams  accordingly  took 
up  his  residence  at  the  capital  of  Prussia.  Shortly 
before  this  he  had  married  Miss  Louisa  Johnson,  a 
niece  of  Thomas  Johnson,  of  Maryland.  During 
his  residence  at  Berlin  Mr.  Adams  translated  Wie- 
land's  "Oberon"  into  English.  In  1798  he  was 
commissioned  to  make  a  commercial  treaty  with 
Sweden.  In  1800  he  made  a  journey  through 
Silesia,  and  wrote  an  account  of  it,  which  was  pub 
lished  in  London  and  afterward  translated  into 
German  and  French.  When  Jefferson  became 
president,  Mr.  Adams's  mission  terminated.  He 
resumed  the  practice  of  law  in  Boston,  but  in  1802 


222     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

was  elected  to  the  Massachusetts  senate,  and  next 
year  was  chosen  to  the  senate  of  the  United  States 
instead  of  Timothy  Pickering. 

The  Federalist  party  was  then  rent  in  twain  by 
the  feud  between  the  partisans  of  John  Adams  and 
those  of  Hamilton,  and  the  reception  of  the 
younger  Adams  in  the  senate  was  far  from  flat 
tering.  Affairs  grew  worse  when,  at  the  next 
vacancy,  Pickering  was  chosen  to  be  his  uncon 
genial  colleague.  Mr.  Adams  was  grossly  and  re 
peatedly  insulted.  Any  motion  he  might  make  was 
sure  to  be  rejected  by  the  combined  votes  of  repub 
licans  and  Hamiltonians,  though  frequently  the 
same  motion,  made  soon  afterward  by  somebody 
else,  would  be  carried  by  a  large  majority.  A  com 
mittee  of  which  he  was  a  member  would  make  and 
send  in  its  report  without  even  notifying  him  of  its 
time  and  place  of  meeting.  At  first  Mr.  Adams 
was  subjected  to  such  treatment  merely  because  he 
was  the  son  of  his  father;  but  presently  he  rendered 
himself  more  and  more  amenable  to  it  by  manifest 
ing  the  same  independence  of  party  ties  that  had 
made  his  father  so  unpopular.  Independence  in 
politics  has  always  been  characteristic  of  the  Adams 
family,  and  in  none  has  this  been  more  strongly 
marked  than  in  John  Quincy  Adams.  His  first 
serious  difference  with  the  federalist  party  was 
occasioned  by  his  qualified  approval  of  Jefferson's 
purchase  of  Louisiana,  a  measure  that  was  bitterly 


JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS  223 

opposed  and  fiercely  censured  by  nearly  all  the 
Federalists,  because  it  was  feared  it  would  add  too 
much  strength  to  the  south. 

A  much  more  serious  difference  arose  somewhat 
later,  on  the  question  of  the  embargo.  Questions 
of  foreign  rather  than  of  domestic  policy  then 
furnished  the  burning  subjects  of  contention  in 
the  United  States.  Our  neutral  commerce  on  the 
high  seas,  which  had  risen  to  very  considerable  pro 
portions,  was  plundered  in  turn  by  England  and 
by  France,  until  its  very  existence  was  threatened. 
In  May,  1806,  the  British  government  declared  the 
northern  coast  of  Europe,  from  Brest  to  the  mouth 
of  the  Elbe,  to  be  blockaded.  By  the  Russian 
proclamation  of  1780,  which  was  then  accepted  by 
all  civilized  nations  except  Great  Britain,  such 
paper  blockades  were  illegal;  but  British  ships  none 
the  less  seized  and  confiscated  American  vessels 
bound  to  any  port  on  that  coast.  In  November 
Napoleon  issued  his  Berlin  decree  making  a  paper 
blockade  of  the  whole  British  coast,  whereupon 
French  cruisers  began  seizing  and  confiscating 
American  vessels  on  their  way  from  British  to 
French  ports.  Two  months  later  England  issued 
an  order  in  council,  forbidding  neutrals  to  trade 
between  any  of  her  enemy's  ports;  and  this  was 
followed  by  orders  decreeing  fines  or  confiscation 
to  all  neutral  ships  daring  to  violate  the  edict.  In 
December,  1807,  Napoleon  replied  with  the  Milan 


224     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

decree,  threatening  to  confiscate  all  ships  bound  to 
England,  or  which  should  have  paid  a  fine  to  the 
British  government  or  submitted  to  search  at  the 
hands  of  a  British  commander. 

All  these  decrees  and  orders  were  in  flagrant 
violation  of  international  law,  and  for  a  time  they 
made  the  ocean  a  pandemonium  of  robbery  and 
murder.  Their  effect  upon  American  commerce 
was  about  the  same  as  if  both  England  and  France 
had  declared  war  against  the  United  States.  Their 
natural  and  proper  effect  upon  the  American  peo 
ple  would  have  been  seen  in  an  immediate  declara 
tion  of  war  against  both  England  and  France,  save 
that  our  military  weakness  was  then  too  manifest 
to  make  such  a  course  anything  but  ridiculous.  Be 
tween  the  animus  of  the  two  bullies  by  whom  we 
were  thus  tormented  there  was  little  to  choose ;  but 
in  two  respects  England's  capacity  for  injuring  us 
was  the  greater.  In  the  first  place,  she  had  more 
ships  engaged  in  this  highway  robbery  than  France, 
and  stronger  ones;  in  the  second  place,  owing  to 
the  difficulty  of  distinguishing  between  Americans 
and  Englishmen,  she  was  able  to  add  the  crowning 
wickedness  of  kidnapping  American  seamen.  The 
wrath  of  the  Americans  was  thus  turned  more 
against  England  than  against  France;  and  never 
perhaps  in  the  revolutionary  war  had  it  waxed 
stronger  than  in  the  summer  of  1807,  when,  in  full 
sight  of  the  American  coast,  the  "Leopard"  fired 


JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS  225 

upon  the  "Chesapeake,"  killed  and  wounded  several 
of  her  crew,  and  violently  carried  away  four  of 
them.  For  this  outrage  the  commander  of  the 
"Leopard"  was  promoted  in  the  British  service. 

In  spite  of  all  these  things,  the  hatred  of  the 
federalists  for  France  was  so  great  that  they  were 
ready  to  put  up  with  insult  added  to  injury  rather 
than  attack  the  power  that  was  warring  against 
Napoleon.  So  far  did  these  feelings  carry  them 
that  Mr.  John  Lowell,  a  prominent  federalist  of 
Boston,  was  actually  heard  to  defend  the  action  of 
the  "Leopard."  Such  pusillanimity  incensed  Mr. 
Adams.  "This  was  the  cause,"  he  afterward  said, 
"which  alienated  me  from  that  day  and  forever 
from  the  councils  of  the  federal  party."  He  tried 
to  persuade  the  federalists  of  Boston  to  hold  a 
meeting  and  pledge  their  support  to  the  govern 
ment  in  any  measures,  however  serious,  that  it 
might  see  fit  to  adopt  in  order  to  curb  the  insolence 
of  Great  Britain.  But  these  gentlemen  were  too 
far  blinded  by  party  feeling  to  respond  to  the  call ; 
whereupon  Mr.  Adams  attended  a  republican  meet 
ing,  at  wrhich  he  was  put  upon  a  committee  to  draft 
and  report  such  resolutions.  Presently  the  fed 
eralists  bowed  to  the  storm  of  popular  feeling  and 
held  their  meeting,  at  which  Mr.  Adams  was  also 
present  and  drafted  resolutions.  For  his  share  in 
the  proceedings  of  the  republicans  it  was  threatened 
that  he  should  "have  his  head  taken  off  for  apos- 


226     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

tasy."  It  was  never  of  much  use  to  threaten  Mr. 
Adams.  An  extra  session  of  congress  was  called 
in  October  to  consider  what  was  to  be  done.  Mr. 
Jefferson's  government  was  averse  to  war,  for 
which  the  country  was  ill  prepared,  and  it  was 
thought  that  somewhat  milder  measures  might 
harass  England  until  she  would  submit  to  reason. 
For  a  year  and  a  half  a  non-importation  act  had 
been  in  force;  but  it  had  proved  no  more  effective 
than  the  non-importation  agreements  of  1768  and 
1774.  Now  an  embargo  was  laid  upon  all  the 
shipping  in  American  ports.  The  advantage  of 
such  a  measure  was  very  doubtful;  it  was  damag 
ing  ourselves  in  the  hope  of  damaging  the  enemy. 
The  greatest  damage  fell  upon  the  maritime  states 
of  New  England,  and  there  the  vials  of  federalist 
wrath  were  poured  forth  with  terrible  fury  upon 
Mr.  Jefferson  and  the  embargo.  But  the  full 
measure  of  their  ferocity  was  reserved  for  Mr. 
Adams,  who  had  actually  been  a  member  of  the 
committee  that  reported  the  bill,  and  had  given  it 
his  most  earnest  support.  All  the  choicest  epithets 
of  abuse  were  showered  upon  him;  few  men  in  our 
history  have  been  more  fiercely  berated  and  reviled. 
His  term  of  service  in  the  senate  was  to  expire  on 
March  3,  1809.  In  the  preceding  June  the  Massa 
chusetts  legislature  chose  Mr.  Lloyd  to  succeed 
him,  a  proceeding  that  was  intended  and  accepted 
as  an  insult.  Mr.  Adams  instantly  resigned,  and 


ty  fc^S&t  1, 


<J  6 

^+uoJ& 

v 


^ 


[Foe-simile  letter  from  John  Quincy  Adams  to  Charles  Francis  Adams] 


JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS          227 

Mr.  Lloyd  was  chosen  to  fill  the  remainder  of  his 
term.  In  the  course  of  the  next  month  the  repub 
licans  of  his  congressional  district  wished  to  elect 
him  to  the  house  of  representatives,  but  he  refused. 
In  1806  Mr.  Adams  had  been  appointed  professor 
of  rhetoric  and  belles-lettres  at  Harvard  college, 
and  in  the  intervals  of  his  public  duties  had  de 
livered  lectures  there,  which  were  published  in  1810, 
and  for  a  time  were  held  in  esteem. 

One  of  Mr.  Madison's  first  acts  on  succeeding  to 
the  presidency  in  1809  was  to  nominate  Mr.  Adams 
minister  to  Russia.  Since  Mr.  Dana's  failure  to 
secure  recognition  in  1782,  the  United  States  had 
had  no  minister  in  that  country,  and  the  new  mission 
was  now  to  be  created.  The  senate  at  first  de 
clined  to  concur  in  creating  the  mission,  but  a  few 
months  later  the  objectors  yielded,  and  Mr. 
Adams's  nomination  was  confirmed.  He  was  very 
courteously  received  by  Alexander  L,  and  his  four 
years  and  a  half  in  Russia  passed  very  pleasantly. 
His  diary  gives  us  a  vivid  account  of  the  Napo 
leonic  invasion  and  its  disastrous  ending.  In  the 
autumn  of  1812  the  czar  offered  his  services  as 
mediator  between  the  United  States  and  Great 
Britain.  War  had  only  been  declared  between  these 
powers  three  months  before,  but  the  American  gov 
ernment  promptly  accepted  the  proposal,  and,  in 
the  height  of  the  popular  enthusiasm  over  the  naval 
victories  of  Hull  and  Decatur,  sent  Messrs.  Gal- 


228     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

latin  and  Bayard  to  St.  Petersburg  to  act  as  com 
missioners  with  Mr.  Adams.  The  British  govern 
ment  refused  to  accept  the  mediation  of  Russia,  but 
proposed  instead  an  independent  negotiation,  to 
which  the  United  States  agreed,  and  the  commis 
sioners  were  directed  to  meet  at  Ghent.  Much 
time  was  consumed  in  these  arguments,  while  we 
were  defeating  England  again  and  again  on  the 
sea,  and  suffering  in  return  some  humiliating  re 
verses  on  land,  until  at  last  the  commissioners  met 
at  Ghent,  in  August,  1814.  Henry  Clay  and  Jona 
than  Russell  were  added  to  the  American  commis 
sion,  while  England  was  represented  by  Lord 
Gambier,  Dr.  Adams,  and  Mr.  Goulburn.  After 
four  months  of  bitter  wrangling,  from  which  no 
good  result  could  have  been  expected,  terms  of 
peace  were  suddenly  agreed  upon  in  December. 

In  warding  off  the  British  attempts  to  limit  our 
rights  in  the  fisheries  Mr.  Adams  played  an  impor 
tant  part,  as  his  father  had  done  in  1782.  The  war 
had  been  a  drawn  game,  neither  side  was  decisively 
victorious,  and  the  treaty  apparently  left  things 
much  as  before.  Nothing  was  explicitly  done  to 
end  the  pretensions  of  England  to  the  right  of 
search  and  the  impressment  of  seamen,  yet  the 
naval  victories  of  the  United  States  had  taught  the 
British  a  lesson,  and  these  pretensions  were  never 
renewed.  The  treaty  was  a  great  disappointment 
to  the  British  people,  who  had  hoped  to  obtain 


JOHN    QUINCY   ADAMS  229 

some  advantages,  and  Mr.  Adams,  for  his  share  in 
it,  was  reviled  by  the  London  press  in  a  tone  which 
could  not  but  be  regarded  as  a  compliment  to  his 
powers.  After  the  conclusion  of  the  treaty  he 
visited  Paris  and  witnessed  the  return  of  Napoleon 
from  Elba  and  the  exciting  events  that  followed 
up  to  the  eve  of  Waterloo.  Here  his  wife  and 
children  joined  him,  after  a  tedious  journey  from 
St.  Petersburg,  not  without  distress  and  peril  by 
the  way.  By  this  time  Mr.  Adams  had  been  ap 
pointed  commissioner,  with  Clay  and  Gallatin,  to 
negotiate  a  new  commercial  treaty  with  England. 
This  treaty  was  completed  on  July  13,  1815;  but 
already,  on  May  26,  when  Mr.  Adams  arrived  in 
London,  he  had  received  the  news  of  his  appoint 
ment  as  minister  to  England.  The  series  of  double 
coincidences  in  the  Adams  family  between  missions 
to  England  and  treaties  with  that  power  is  curious. 
First  John  Adams  is  minister,  just  after  his  share 
in  the  treaty  that  concluded  the  revolutionary  war, 
then  his  son,  just  after  the  treaty  that  concluded 
the  war  of  1812-'15,  and  then  the  grandson  is 
minister  during  the  civil  war  and  afterward  takes 
part  in  the  treaty  that  disposed  of  the  Alabama 
question. 

After  an  absence  of  eight  years,  John  Quincy 
Adams  was  called  back  to  his  native  land  to  serve 
as  secretary  of  state  under  President  Monroe.  A 
new  era  in  American  politics  was  dawning.  The 


230     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

war  which  had  just  been  concluded  has  sometimes 
been  called  our  second  war  of  independence;  cer 
tainly  the  year  1815,  which  saw  the  end  of  the  long 
strife  between  France  and  England,  marks  an  im 
portant  era  in  American  history.  Our  politics 
ceased  to  be  concerned  mainly  with  foreign  affairs. 
So  suddenly  were  men's  bones  of  political  conten 
tion  taken  away  from  them  that  Monroe's  presi 
dency  is  traditionally  remembered  as  the  "era  of 
good  feeling."  So  far  as  political  parties  were 
concerned,  such  an  epithet  is  well  applied;  but  as 
between  prominent  individuals  struggling  covertly 
to  supplant  one  another,  it  was  anything  rather 
than  an  era  of  good  feeling.  Mr.  Adams's  prin 
cipal  achievement  as  secretary  of  state  was  the 
treaty  with  Spain,  whereby  Florida  was  ceded  to 
the  United  States  in  consideration  of  $5,000,000, 
to  be  applied  to  the  liquidation  of  outstanding 
claims  of  American  merchants  against  Spain.  By 
the  same  treaty  the  boundary  between  Louisiana 
and  Mexico  was  established  as  running  along  the 
Sabine  and  Red  rivers,  the  upper  Arkansas,  the 
crest  of  the  Rocky  mountains,  and  the  42d  parallel. 
Mr.  Adams  defended  the  conduct  of  Gen.  Jack 
son  in  invading  Spanish  Florida  and  hanging 
Arbuthnot  and  Ambrister.  He  supported  the 
policy  of  recognizing  the  independence  of  the  re 
volted  colonies  of  Spanish  America,  and  he  was  the 
principal  author  of  what  is  known  as  the  "Monroe 


JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS  231 

Doctrine,"  that  the  American  continent  is  no 
longer  open  to  colonization  by  European  powers. 
His  official  report  on  weights  and  measures  showed 
remarkable  scientific  knowledge.  Toward  the  close 
of  Monroe's  first  term  came  up  the  first  great 
political  question  growing  out  of  the  purchase  of 
Louisiana:  Should  Missouri  be  admitted  to  the 
union  as  a  slave-state,  and  should  slavery  be  allowed 
or  prohibited  in  the  vast  territory  beyond?  After 
the  Missouri  compromise  had  passed  through 
congress,  and  been  submitted  to  President  Monroe 
for  his  signature,  two  questions  were  laid  before  the 
cabinet.  First,  had  congress  the  constitutional 
right  to  prohibit  slavery  in  a  territory?  and, 
secondly,  in  prohibiting  slavery  "forever"  in  the 
territory  north  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line,  as  pro 
longed  beyond  the  Mississippi  river,  did  the  Mis 
souri  bill  refer  to  this  district  only  so  long  as  it 
should  remain  under  territorial  government,  or  did 
it  apply  to  such  states  as  might  in  future  be  formed 
from  it?  To  the  first  question  the  cabinet  replied 
unanimously  in  the  affirmative.  To  the  second 
question  Mr.  Adams  replied  that  the  term  "for 
ever"  really  meant  forever;  but  all  his  colleagues 
replied  that  it  only  meant  so  long  as  the  district 
in  question  should  remain  under  territorial  govern 
ment.  Here  for  the  first  time  we  see  Mr.  Adams 
taking  that  firm  stand  in  opposition  to  slavery 
which  thereafter  was  to  make  him  so  famous. 


232     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

Mr.  Monroe's  second  term  of  office  had  scarcely 
begun  when  the  question  of  the  succession  came  into 
the  foreground.    The  candidates  were  John  Quincy 
Adams,   secretary   of   state;   William   H.    Craw 
ford,  secretary  of  the  treasury;  John  C.  Calhoun, 
secretary  of  war;  and  Henry  Clay,  speaker  of  the 
house  of  representatives.     Shortly  before  the  elec 
tion  Gen.  Jackson's  strength  began  to  loom  up  as 
more  formidable  than  the  other  competitors  had 
supposed.    Jackson  was  then  at  the  height  of  his 
popularity  as  a  military  hero,  Crawford  was  the 
most  dexterous  political  manager  in  the  country. 
Clay  was  perhaps  the  most  persuasive  orator.    Far 
superior  to  these  three  in  intelligence  and  character, 
Mr.  Adams  was  in  no  sense  a  popular  favorite. 
His  manners  were  stiff  and  disagreeable;  he  told 
the  truth  bluntly,  whether  it  hurt  or  not;  and  he 
never  took  pains  to  conciliate  any  one.     The  best 
of  men  in  his  domestic  circle,  outside  of  it  he  had 
few  warm  friends,  but  he  seemed  to  have  a  talent 
for    making    enemies.      When    Edward    Everett 
asked  him  if  he  was  "determined  to  do  nothing 
with  a  view  to  promote  his  future  election  to  the 
presidency  as  the  successor  of  Mr.  Monroe,"  he 
replied  that  he  "should  do  absolutely  nothing,"  and 
from  this  resolution  he  never  swerved.    He  desired 
the  presidency  as  much  as  any  one  who  was  ever 
chosen  to  that  high  office;  but  his  nature  was  such 
that  unless  it  should  come  to  him  without  scheming 


JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS  233 

of  his  own,  and  as  the  unsolicited  expression  of 
popular  trust  in  him,  all  its  value  would  be  lost. 
Under  the  circumstances,  it  was  a  remarkable  evi 
dence  of  the  respect  felt  for  his  lofty  character  and 
distinguished  services  that  he  should  have  obtained 
the  presidency  at  all.  The  result  of  the  election 
showed  99  votes  for  Jackson,  84  for  Adams,  41  for 
Crawford,  37  for  Clay.  Mr.  Calhoun,  who  had 
withdrawn  from  the  contest  for  the  presidency,  re 
ceived  182  votes  for  the  vice-presidency,  and  was 
elected.  The  choice  of  the  president  was  thrown 
into  the  house  of  representatives,  and  Mr.  Clay 
now  used  his  great  influence  in  favor  of  Mr. 
Adams,  who  was  forthwith  elected.  When  Adams 
afterward  made  Clay  his  secretary  of  state,  the 
disappointed  partisans  of  Jackson  pretended  that 
there  had  been  a  bargain  between  the  two,  that 
Adams  had  secured  Clay's  assistance  by  promising 
him  the  first  place  in  the  cabinet,  and  thus,  accord 
ing  to  a  usage  that  seemed  to  be  establishing  itself, 
placing  him  in  the  line  of  succession  for  the  next 
presidency.  The  peppery  John  Randolph  char 
acterized  this  supposed  bargain  as  "a  coalition  be 
tween  Blifil  and  Black  George,  the  Puritan  and 
the  Blackleg."  There  never  was  a  particle  of  foun 
dation  for  this  reckless  charge,  and  it  has  long 
since  been  disproved. 

During  Monroe's  administration  the  Federalist 
party  had  become  extinct.     In  the  course  of  John 


234     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

Quincy  Adams's  administration  the  new  division 
of  parties  into  Whigs  and  Democrats  began  to 
grow  up,  the  Whigs  favoring  internal  improve 
ments,  the  national  bank,  and  a  high  tariff  on  im 
portations,  while  the  Democrats  opposed  all  such 
measures  on  the  ground  that  they  were  incom 
patible  with  a  strict  construction  of  the  constitu 
tion.  In  its  relation  to  such  questions  Mr.  Adams's 
administration  was  Whig,  and  thus  arrayed  against 
itself  not  only  all  the  southern  planters,  but  also  the 
ship-owners  of  New  England  and  the  importers 
of  New  York.  But  a  new  and  powerful  tendency 
now  came  in  to  overwhelm  such  an  administration 
as  that  of  Adams.  The  so-called  "spoils  system" 
was  already  germinating,  and  the  time  had  come 
when  it  could  be  put  into  operation.  Mr.  Adams 
would  have  nothing  to  say  to  such  a  system.  He 
would  not  reward  the  men  who  worked  for  him,  and 
he  would  not  remove  from  office  the  men  who  most 
vigorously  opposed  him.  He  stood  on  his  merits, 
asked  no  favors  and  granted  none;  and  was,  on 
the  whole,  the  most  independent  president  we  have 
had  since  Washington.  Jackson  and  his  friends 
promised  their  supporters  a  share  in  the  govern 
ment  offices,  in  which  a  "clean  sweep"  was  to  be 
made  by  turning  out  the  present  incumbents.  The 
result  of  the  election  of  1828  showed  that  for  the 
time  Jackson's  method  was  altogether  the  more 


JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS  235 

potent;    since    he    obtained    178    electoral    votes, 
against  83  for  Adams. 

The  close  of  his  career  as  president  was  marked 
by  an  incident  that  increased  the  odium  in  which 
Mr.  Adams  was  held  by  so  many  of  the  old  fed 
eralist  families  of  Boston.  In  the  excitement  of 
the  election  the  newspapers  devoted  to  Jackson 
swarmed  with  mischievous  paragraphs  designed  to 
injure  Adams's  reputation.  Among  other  things 
it  was  said  that,  in  1808,  he  had  suspected  some  of 
the  federalist  leaders  of  entertaining  a  scheme  for 
carrying  New  England  out  of  the  union,  and,  fear 
ing  that  such  a  scheme  would  be  promoted  by  hatred 
of  the  embargo,  and  that  in  case  of  its  success  the 
seceded  states  would  almost  inevitably  be  driven 
into  alliance  with  Great  Britain,  he  communicated 
his  suspicions  to  President  Jefferson  and  other 
leading  republicans.  These  tales,  published  by 
unscrupulous  newspapers  twenty  years  after  the 
event,  grossly  distorted  what  Mr.  Adams  had 
actually  said  and  done;  and  thirteen  eminent 
Massachusetts  federalists  addressed  to  him  an  open 
letter,  demanding  that  he  should  bring  in  a  bill  of 
particulars  supported  by  evidence.  Adams  replied 
by  stating  the  substance  of  what  he  had  really  said, 
but  declining  to  mention  names  or  to  point  out  the 
circumstances  upon  which  his  suspicion  had  been 
based.  In  preserving  this  reticence  he  was  actuated 
mainly  by  unwillingness  to  stir  up  a  furious  con- 


236     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

troversy  under  circumstances  in  which  it  could  do 
no  good.  But  his  adversaries  made  the  mistake  of 
attributing  his  forbearance  to  dread  of  ill  conse 
quences  to  himself — a  motive  by  which,  it  is  safe 
to  say,  Mr.  Adams  was  never  influenced  on  any 
occasion  whatever.  So  the  thirteen  gentlemen  re 
turned  to  the  attack.  Mr.  Adams  then  wrote  out 
a  full  statement  of  the  case,  completely  vindicating 
himself,  and  bringing  forward  more  than  enough 
evidence  to  justify  any  such  suspicions  as  he  had 
entertained  and  guardedly  stated.  After  finishing 
this  pamphlet  he  concluded  not  to  issue  it,  but  left 
it  among  his  papers.  It  has  been  published  by 
Prof.  Henry  Adams,  in  his  "Documents  relating 
to  New  England  Federalism,"  and  is  not  only  of 
great  historical  importance,  but  is  one  of  the  finest 
specimens  of  political  writing  to  be  found  in  the 
English  language. 

Although  now  an  ex-president,  Mr.  Adams  did 
not  long  remain  in  private  life.  The  greatest  part 
of  his  career  still  lay  before  him.  Owing  to  the 
mysterious  disappearance  of  William  Morgan,  who 
had  betrayed  some  of  the  secrets  of  the  Masonic 
order,  there  was  in  some  of  the  northern  states  a 
sudden  and  violent  prejudice  against  the  Free 
masons  and  secret  societies  in  general.  An  "anti- 
mason  party"  was  formed,  and  by  its  votes  Mr. 
Adams  was,  in  1831,  elected  to  congress,  where  he 
remained,  representing  the  same  district  of  Massa- 


JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS  237 

chusetts,  until  his  death  in  1848.  He  was  shortly 
afterward  nominated  by  the  anti-masons  for  the 
governorship  of  Massachusetts,  but  was  defeated 
in  the  legislature,  there  being  no  choice  by  the  peo 
ple.  In  congress  he  occupied  a  perfectly  independ 
ent  attitude.  He  was  one  of  those  who  opposed 
President  Jackson's  high-handed  treatment  of  the 
bank,  but  he  supported  the  president  in  his  firm 
attitude  toward  the  South  Carolina  nullifiers  and 
toward  France.  In  1835,  as  the  French  govern 
ment  delayed  in  paying  over  the  indemnity  of 
$5,000,000  which  had  been  agreed  upon  by  the 
treaty  of  1831  for  plunder  of  American  shipping 
in  the  Napoleonic  wars,  Jackson  threatened,  in  case 
payment  should  be  any  longer  deferred,  to  issue 
letters  of  marque  and  reprisal  against  French  com 
merce.  This  bold  policy,  which  was  successful  in 
obtaining  the  money,  enlisted  Mr.  Adams's  hearty 
support.  He  defended  Jackson  as  he  had  de 
fended  Jefferson  on  the  occasion  of  the  embargo; 
and  this  time,  as  before,  his  course  was  disapproved 
in  Massachusetts,  and  he  lost  a  seat  in  the  U.  S. 
senate.  He  had  been  chosen  to  that  office  by  the 
state  senate,  but  the  lower  house  did  not  concur, 
and  before  the  question  was  decided  the  news  of 
his  speech  in  favor  of  reprisals  turned  his  sup 
porters  against  him.  He  was  thus  left  in  the  house 
of  representatives  more  independent  of  party  ties 
than  ever,  and  was  accordingly  enabled  to  devote 


238     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

his  energies  to  the  aid  of  the  abolitionists,  who  were 
now  beginning  to  appear  conspicuously  upon  the 
scene. 

At  that  time  it  was  impossible  for  the  opponents 
of  slavery  to  effect  much.  The  only  way  in  which 
they  could  get  their  case  before  congress  was  by 
presenting  petitions  for  the  abolition  of  slavery  in 
the  District  of  Columbia.  Unwilling  to  receive 
such  petitions,  or  to  allow  any  discussion  on  the 
dreaded  question,  congress  in  1836  enacted  the 
cowardly  "gag  rule,"  that  "all  petitions,  memorials, 
resolutions,  or  papers  relating  in  any  way  or  to 
any  extent  whatsoever  to  the  subject  of  slavery  or 
the  abolition  of  slavery,  shall,  without  being  either 
printed  or  referred,  be  laid  upon  the  table;  and 
that  no  further  action  whatever  shall  be  had 
thereon."  After  the  yeas  and  nays  had  been 
ordered  on  this,  when  Mr.  Adams's  name  was  called 
he  rose  and  said:  "I  hold  the  resolution  to  be  a 
direct  violation  of  the  constitution  of  the  United 
States,  the  rules  of  this  house,  and  the  rights  of 
my  constituents."  The  house  sought  to  drown  his 
words  with  loud  shrieks  and  yells  of  "Order!" 
"Order!"  but  he  raised  his  voice  to  a  shout  and 
defiantly  finished  his  sentence.  The  rule  was 
adopted  by  a  vote  of  117  to  68,  but  it  did  more 
harm  than  good  to  the  pro-slavery  party.  They 
had  put  themselves  in  an  untenable  position,  and 
furnished  Mr.  Adams  with  a  powerful  weapon 


JOHN    QUINCY   ADAMS  239 

which  he  used  against  them  without  mercy.  As  a 
parliamentary  debater  he  has  had  few  if  any 
superiors;  in  knowledge  and  dexterity  there  was 
no  one  in  the  house  who  could  be  compared  with 
him;  he  was  always  master  of  himself,  even  at  the 
white  heat  of  anger  to  which  he  often  rose;  he  was 
terrible  in  invective,  matchless  at  repartee,  and  in 
sensible  to  fear.  A  single-handed  fight  against  all 
the  slave-holders  in  the  house  was  something  upon 
which  he  was  always  ready  to  enter,  and  he  usually 
came  off  with  the  last  word.  Though  the  vitu 
perative  vocabulary  of  the  English  language  seemed 
inadequate  to  express  the  hatred  and  loathing  with 
which  the  pro-slavery  party  regarded  him,  though 
he  was  more  than  once  threatened  with  assassina 
tion,  nevertheless  his  dauntless  bearing  and  bound 
less  resources  compelled  the  respect  of  his  bitterest 
opponents,  and  members  from  the  south,  with  true 
chivalry,  sometimes  confessed  it.  Every  session  he 
returned  to  the  assault  upon  the  gag-rule,  until  the 
disgraceful  measure  was  rescinded  in  1845. 

This  part  of  Mr.  Adams's  career  consisted  of  a 
vast  number  of  small  incidents,  which  make  a  very 
interesting  and  instructive  chapter  in  American 
history,  but  can  not  well  be  epitomized.  He  came 
to  serve  as  the  rallying-point  in  congress  for  the 
ever-growing  anti-slavery  sentiment,  and  may  be 
regarded,  in  a  certain  sense,  as  the  first  founder  of 
the  new  republican  party.  He  seems  to  have  been 


240     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

the  first  to  enunciate  the  doctrine  upon  which  Mr. 
Lincoln  afterward  rested  his  great  proclamation 
of  emancipation.  In  a  speech  in  congress  in  1836 
he  said:  "From  the  instant  that  your  slave-holding 
states  become  the  theatre  of  war — civil,  servile,  or 
foreign — from  that  instant  the  war  powers  of  the 
constitution  extend  to  interference  with  the  insti 
tution  of  slavery  in  every  way  in  which  it  can  be 
interfered  with."  As  this  principle  was  attacked 
by  the  southern  members,  Mr.  Adams  from  time  to 
time  reiterated  it,  especially  in  his  speech  of  April 
14,  1842,  on  the  question  of  war  with  England  and 
Mexico,  when  he  said:  "Whether  the  war  be  civil, 
servile,  or  foreign,  I  lay  this  down  as  the  law  of 
nations :  I  say  that  the  military  authority  takes  for 
the  time  the  place  of  all  municipal  institutions, 
slavery  among  the  rest.  Under  that  state  of  things, 
so  far  from  its  being  true  that  the  states  where 
slavery  exists  have  the  exclusive  management  of 
the  subject,  not  only  the  president  of  the  United 
States,  but  the  commander  of  the  army  unquestion 
ably  has  power  to  order  the  universal  emancipation 
of  the  slaves." 

After  the  rescinding  of  the  gag-rule  Mr.  Adams 
spoke  less  frequently.  In  November,  1846,  he  sus 
tained  a  shock  of  paralysis,  which  incapacitated  him 
for  several  weeks,  and  from  the  effect  of  which  he 
never  altogether  recovered.  On  February  21, 1848, 
while  he  was  sitting  in  the  house  of  representatives, 


JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS  241 

came  the  second  shock.  He  was  carried  into  the 
speaker's  room,  where  he  lay  two  days,  and  died  on 
the  23d.  His  last  words  were:  "This  is  the  last  of 
earth;  I  am  content."  See  "Life  and  Public  Serv 
ices  of  John  Quincy  Adams,"  by  William  H.  Sewr- 
ard  (Auburn,  1849);  "Life  of  John  Quincy 
Adams,"  by  Josiah  Quincy  (Boston,  1858)  ; 
"Diary  of  John  Quincy  Adams,"  edited  by  Charles 
F.  Adams,  12  vols.,  8vo  (Philadelphia,  1874-7) ; 
"John  Quincy  Adams,"  by  John  T.  Morse,  Jr. 
(Boston,  1882)  :  and  "Writings  of  John  Quincy 
Adams,"  edited  by  Worthington  Chauncey  Ford, 
vols.  1  and  2,  including  the  years  1779-1801,  8vo 
(New  York,  1913).  Ten  more  volumes  are  to 
follow. 

[The  full-page  portrait  of  Mr.  Adams  in  this 
chapter,  is  from  a  picture  by  Marchant,  in  the  pos 
session  of  the  New  York  Historical  Society,  The 
Adams  homestead  at  Quincy,  in  which  the  two 
presidents  lived,  was  the  summer  residence  of 
Charles  Francis  Adams,  and  is  now  (1913)  occu 
pied  by  his  son,  Brooks  Adams.] 

CHARLES  FRANCIS  ADAMS,,  diplomatist,  son  of 
John  Quincy  Adams,  born  in  Boston,  August  18, 
1807;  died  there  November  21,  1886.  When  two 
years  old  he  was  taken  by  his  father  to  St.  Peters 
burg,  where  he  acquired  German,  French,  and  Rus 
sian.  Early  in  1815  he  travelled  all  the  way  from 


242     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

St.  Petersburg  to  Paris  with  his  mother  by  pri 
vate  carriage,  a  difficult  journey  at  that  juncture, 
when  the  armies  of  the  allies  were  returning,  and 
being  temporarily  disbanded,  after  the  abdication 
of  Fontainebleau  and  immediately  prior  to  Napo 
leon's  return  from  Elba.  His  father  at  this  time 
had  just  finished  his  service  as  one  of  the  negotia 
tors  of  the  Treaty  of  Ghent,  between  the  United 
States  and  Great  Britain.  Immediately  after  that, 
and  during  the  "Hundred  Days,"  he  was  ap 
pointed  Minister  near  the  Court  of  St.  James,  and 
the  boy,  accompanying  his  parents  to  England, 
was,  with  his  brothers,  placed  at  a  boarding  school 
not  far  from  London.  This  was  immediately  sub 
sequent  to  the  war  of  1812-1814,  and  the  feeling  be 
tween  British  and  Americans  was  more  bitter  than 
ever  before  or,  probably,  since.  Young  Adams,  a 
boy  of  nine,  was  compelled,  in  company  with  his 
two  elder  brothers,  to  accept  the  rough  usage  then 
common  in  English  boarding  schools,  and  to  sus 
tain  himself  as  best  he  might  in  any  conflict, 
whether  of  wits  or  pugilism,  which  confronted  him. 
The  experience  gave  him  an  insight  as  respects 
English  methods  and  characteristics  which,  as  a 
diplomatist,  stood  him  in  good  stead  half  a  century 
later.  Two  years  afterward,  in  1818,  returning 
with  his  parents  to  America,  his  father  placed  him 
in  the  Boston  Latin  school;  subsequently  he  was 
graduated  at  Harvard  college,  class  of  1825, 


JOHN    QUINCY   ADAMS  243 

shortly  after  his  father's  inauguration  as  president 
of  the  United  States.  He  spent  two  years  in 
Washington,  and  then,  returning  to  Boston, 
studied  law  in  the  office  of  Daniel  Webster.  He 
was  admitted  to  the  Suffolk  bar  in  1828  and  the 
next  year  married  the  youngest  daughter  of  Peter 
Chardon  Brooks,  whose  elder  daughters  were  the 
wives  of  Edward  Everett  and  Rev.  Nathaniel  L. 
Frothingham.  From  1841  to  1846  Mr.  Adams 
served  in  the  Massachusetts  legislature.  He  was 
a  member  of  the  whig  party,  but,  like  others  of  his 
vigorous  and  free-thinking  family,  he  was  ex 
tremely  independent  in  politics  and  inclined  to 
strike  into  new  paths  in  advance  of  the  public  senti 
ment.  After  1836  he  came  to  differ  more  and  more 
widely  from  the  leaders  of  the  whig  party,  with 
whom  he  had  hitherto  acted.  In  1848  the  newly 
organized  free-soil  party,  consisting  largely  of 
democrats,  held  its  convention  at  Buffalo  and  nomi 
nated  Martin  Van  Buren  for  president  and  Charles 
Francis  Adams  for  vice-president.  There  was  no 
hope  of  electing  these  candidates,  but  this  organi 
zation  developed,  six  years  later,  into  the  great  re 
publican  party.  In  1858  Mr.  Adams  was  elected  to 
Congress  by  the  republicans  of  the  3d  district  of 
Massachusetts,  and  in  1860  he  was  reflected. 

In  the  spring  of  1861  President  Lincoln  ap 
pointed  him  minister  to  England,  a  place  which 
both  his  father  and  his  grandfather  had  filled  be- 


244     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

fore  him.  It  was  an  exceedingly  difficult  time  for 
an  American  representative.  There  was  much 
sympathy  for  the  U.  S.  government  on  the  part  of 
the  workmen  in  the  manufacturing  districts  and  of 
many  of  the  liberal  constituencies  in  Great  Britain, 
especially  in  Scotland;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
feeling  of  the  governing  classes  and  of  polite  so 
ciety  in  London  was  either  actively  hostile  or  coldly 
indifferent.  Even  those  students  of  history  and 
politics  who  were  most  friendly  to  the  Union  side 
failed  to  comprehend  the  true  character  of  the 
struggle — as  may  be  seen  in  reading  the  introduc 
tion  to  Mr.  E.  A.  Freeman's  elaborate  "History  of 
Federal  Government  from  the  Formation  of  the 
Achaean  League  to  the  Disruption  of  the  United 
States"  (London,  1862).  Difficult  and  embarrass 
ing  questions  arose  in  connection  with  the  capture 
of  the  confederate  commissioners  Mason  and 
Slidell,  the  negligence  of  the  Palmerston-Russell 
government  in  allowing  the  "Alabama"  and  other 
confederate  cruisers  to  sail  from  British  ports  to 
prey  upon  American  commerce,  and  the  ever  mani 
fest  desire  of  Napoleon  III.  to  persuade  Great 
Britain  to  join  him  in  an  acknowledgment  of  the 
independence  of  the  confederacy.  The  duties  of 
this  difficult  diplomatic  mission  were  discharged  by 
Mr.  Adams  with  such  consummate  ability  as  to  win 
universal  admiration.  No  more  than  his  father  or 
grandfather  did  he  belong  to  the  school  of  crafty 


JOHN    QUINCY   ADAMS  245 

and  intriguing  diplomats.  He  pursued  his  ends  in 
the  way  natural  to  him,  firmly,  if  quietly,  main 
taining  the  cause  of  his  country,  and  faithfully  car 
rying  out  his  instructions.  He  early  won  the  confi 
dence  of  Earl  Russell,  then  the  British  Secretary 
for  Foreign  Affairs,  and  the  two  maintained  mu 
tually  respecting  friendly  relations,  which  proved 
highly  advantageous  to  the  Union  cause.  When, 
however,  a  direct  issue,  as  in  the  case  of  the  "Laird 
Rams,"  (1863)  presented  itself,  Mr.  Adams 
evinced  unflinching  firmness,  making  his  famous 
written  announcement  to  the  Foreign  Secretary 
that,  in  the  contingency  of  the  escape  of  the 
"Rams,"  it  would  be  "superfluous  to  point  out  to 
your  Lordship  that  this  is  war."  The  "Rams" 
were  detained.  His  opponent,  Mr.  Mason,  the 
Confederate  commissioner,  subsequently  retired 
from  the  field  leaving  Mr.  Adams  complete  master 
of  it.  Taken  altogether  his  career  in  England 
from  1861  to  1868  must  be  cited  among  the  fore 
most  triumphs  of  American  diplomacy.  In  1872 
it  was  attempted  to  nominate  him  for  the  presi 
dency  of  the  United  States,  as  the  candidate  of  the 
liberal  republicans,  but  Horace  Greeley  was  selected 
as  the  candidate  in  preference.  He  was  elected  in 
1869  a  member  of  the  board  of  overseers  of  Har 
vard  university,  and  was  for  several  years  president 
of  the  board. 

In  1870  Mr.  Adams  was  appointed  the  American 


246    LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

member  on  the  board  of  the  Geneva  Arbitration, 
provided    for    in    the    Treat}-    of    Washington. 
Largely  through  his  attitude  and  action  the  arbi 
tration  proved  a  success,  the  "Alabama  Claims,"  so- 
called,  being  satisfactorily  settled,  and  the  rela 
tions  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States 
thus  placed  upon  a  greatly  improved  and  more 
friendly  basis.    He  had  already  edited  (1844)  the 
familiar    letters    of    his    grandmother,    Abigail 
Adams,  and  later  those  of  John  Adams  during  the 
War  of  Independence.    The  first  of  these  publica 
tions  contained  a  memoir  of  Mrs.  Adams.    Subse 
quently,  in  1876,  these  letters,  so  far  as  they  re 
lated  to  the  Revolutionary  period,  were  republished 
together,  in  a  single  volume.    They  take  their  place 
by  the  side  of  the  most  valuable  contemporary  rec 
ords  relating  to  the  struggle  for  American  Inde 
pendence.     In  1850-53  Mr.  Adams  published  the 
writings,  and  wrote  the  life,  of  his  grandfather, 
President  John  Adams,   in  ten   octavo  volumes. 
After  his  return  from  Geneva  (1872)  he  published 
the  memoirs  of  his  father,  John  Quincy  Adams,  in 
twelve    octavo   volumes.      During    his    life,    Mr. 
Adams  delivered,  and  published,  a  number  of  ad 
dresses,  orations,  and  other  papers,  both  critical  and 
political.     (See  Life  of  Mr.  Adams,  "American 
Statesmen   Series,"   by  his   son    Charles   Francis 
Adams.) 


JOHN    QUINCY    ADAMS  247 

JOHN  QUINCY,  lawyer,  eldest  son  of  Charles 
Francis  Adams,  born  in  Boston,  September  22, 
1833.  He  was  graduated  at  Harvard  college  in 
1853,  and  admitted  to  the  Suffolk  bar  in  1855. 
During  the  civil  war  he  was  on  Gov.  Andrew's 
staff.  He  was  elected  to  the  legislature  by  the 
town  of  Quincy  in  1866,  but  failed  to  secure  a 
reelection  the  following  year  because  he  had  de 
clared  his  approval  of  Andrew  Johnson's  policy  of 
reconstruction.  In  1869  and  1870  he  was  again  a 
member  of  the  legislature.  In  1867  and  1871  he 
was  democratic  candidate  for  governor  of  Massa 
chusetts,  and  was  defeated.  In  1877  he  was 
chosen  a  member  of  the  corporation  of  Harvard. 
Mr.  Adams  died  August  14,  1894. 

CHARLES  FRANCIS,,  lawyer,  second  son  of  Charles 
Francis  Adams,  born  in  Boston,  May  27,  1835. 
He  was  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1856,  and  ad 
mitted  to  the  bar  in  1858.  He  served  through 
almost  the  whole  of  the  civil  war,  being  commis 
sioned  lieutenant  of  the  First  Massachusetts  cav 
alry  in  November,  1861,  and  resigning  as  colonel 
of  the  Fifth  Massachusetts  Cavalry  (colored) ,  with 
the  brevet  of  brigadier-general,  in  July,  1865.  In 
1869  he  was  appointed  a  member  of  the  board  of 
railroad  commissioners  of  Massachusetts,  and  con 
tinued  in  that  office  by  successive  reappointments 
until  1879,  when  he  retired.  He  was  then  selected 


248     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

as  one  of  the  board  of  arbitration  for  the  executive 
committee  of  eastern  trunk  lines  and  western  rail 
roads,  and  subsequently  as  sole  arbitrator,  which 
position  he  resigned  in  June,  1884,  when  he  became 
president  of  the  Union  Pacific  Railway  Company. 
He  continued  president  of  that  company  until  No 
vember,  1890.    He  then  retired  from  all  connection 
with  railroad  matters,  and  has  since  devoted  him 
self  to  historical  and  literary  pursuits.     In  1882 
he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  board  of  overseers 
of  Harvard  university,  and  reflected  in  1888,  1895 
and  1901.    Since  1895  he  has  been  president  of  the 
Massachusetts  Historical  Society.     In  connection 
with    his    brother,    Henry    Adams,    he    prepared 
"Chapters  of  Erie  and  other  Essays"    (Boston, 
1871).     He  subsequently  published  a  treatise  en 
titled    "Railroads;    their    Origin    and    Problems" 
(New  York,  1878) ;  a  work  on  "Railroad  Acci 
dents"  (1879) ;  "Life  of  Richard  H.  Dana"  (Bos 
ton,    1890)  ;    "Three    Episodes    in    Massachusetts 
History"    (1892);  and  "Massachusetts:  Its  His 
torians  and  its  History"  (1893).    He  has  also  de 
livered  a  number  of  occasional  addresses  at  home 
and  abroad  and  been  a  frequent  contributor  to  the 
North  American  Review,   The  Forum,  and  the 
Proceedings  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  So 
ciety,  in  which  last  he  has  printed  many  mono 
graphs   on  historical  subjects.     A   collection   of 
these  valuable  essays,  including  one  on  General 


JOHN    QUINCY   ADAMS  249 

Lee,  was  issued  in  a  volume  in  1911,  entitled  "Stu 
dies  Military  and  Diplomatic."  For  half  a  century 
his  father  kept  a  diary  and  copies  of  his  letters. 

Mr.  Adams  has  for  a  number  of  years  been  occu 
pied  with  investigations  naturally  suggesting 
themselves  in  connection  with  these  papers,  and  in 
the  preparation  of  a  more  detailed  biography  of 
his  father;  which,  when  published,  will  constitute 
practically  a  history  of  the  diplomacy  of  the  war 
of  secession,  and  of  the  issues  which  then  arose 
between  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States.  In 
this  work  it  is  understood  he  will  draw  freely  on 
the  papers  of  the  elder  Charles  Francis  Adams. 

HENRY,  author,  another  son  of  Charles  Francis 
Adams,  born  in  Boston,  February  16,  1838.  He 
was  graduated  at  Harvard  in  1858,  and  was  his 
father's  private  secretary  in  London  from  1861 
to  1868.  From  1870  till  1877  he  was  assistant  pro 
fessor  of  history  in  Harvard  college,  and  was  one 
of  the  ablest  instructors  the  university  has  known 
during  the  present  generation,  possessing  to  an 
extraordinary  degree  the  power  of  inciting  his 
pupils  to  original  work.  Subsequently  discontinu 
ing  his  connection  with  Harvard  university,  he 
established  himself  in  Washington,  where  he  wrote, 
and  published,  his  History  of  the  United  States 
(1801-1816) ;  generally  regarded  as  among  the  best 
of  American  historical  writings.  During  recent 


250     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

years  he  has  lived  in  Washington  in  winter,  passing 
his  summers  in  Paris.  He  has  also  published  "Es 
says  in  Anglo-Saxon  Law"  (Boston,  1876) ;  "Doc 
uments  relating  to  New  England  Federalism, 
1800-1815"  (1877);  "Life  of  Albert  Gallatin" 
(Philadelphia,  1879) ;  "Writings  of  Albert  Galla 
tin,"  edited  (3  vols.,  1879);  "John  Randolph" 
(Boston,  1882) ;  "History  of  the  United  States 
during  the  Administration  of  Jefferson  and  Madi 
son,"  9  vols.  (New  York,  1889-1891),  and  "His 
torical  Essays"  (1891). 

BROOKS,  lawyer,  youngest  son  of  Charles  Francis 
Adams,  born  in  Quincy,  Mass.,  June  24,  1848, 
graduated  at  Harvard  university  in  1870,  and  was 
admitted  to  the  Suffolk  bar  in  1873.  He  has  pub 
lished  articles  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  and  other 
periodicals,  and  is  the  author  of  "The  Emancipa 
tion  of  Massachusetts"  (Boston,  1886) ;  "The  Law 
of  Civilization  and  Decay"  (1896);  "America's 
Economic  Supremacy"  (1900);  "The  New  Em 
pire"  (1902),  and  "Railways  as  Public  Agents" 
(1910). 


ANDREW   JACKSON 

BY 

JOHN  FISKE 


ANDREW  JACKSON 

ANDREW  JACKSON,  seventh  president  of  the 
United  States,  born  in  the  Waxhaw  settlement  on 
the  border  between  North  and  South  Carolina, 
March  15, 1767;  died  at  the  Hermitage,  near  Nash 
ville,  Tenn.,  June  8,  1845.  His  father,  Andrew 
Jackson,  came  over  from  Carrickfergus,  on  the 
north  coast  of  Ireland,  in  1765.  His  grandfather, 
Hugh  Jackson,  had  been  a  linen-draper.  His 
mother's  name  was  Elizabeth  Hutchinson,  and  her 
family  were  linen-weavers.  Andrew  Jackson,  the 
father,  died  a  few  days  before  the  birth  of  his  son. 
The  log  cabin  in  which  the  future  president  was 
born  was  situated  within  a  quarter  of  a  mile  of  the 
boundary  between  the  two  Carolinas,  and  the  peo 
ple  of  the  neighborhood  do  not  seem  to  have  had  a 
clear  idea  as  to  which  province  it  belonged.  In  a 
letter  of  December  24,  1830,  in  the  proclamation 
addressed  to  the  nullifiers,  in  1832,  and  again  in 
his  will,  Gen.  Jackson  speaks  of  himself  as  a  native 
of  South  Carolina;  but  the  evidence  adduced  by 
Parton  seems  to  show  that  the  birthplace  was  north 
of  the  border.  Three  weeks  after  the  birth  of  her 
son  Mrs.  Jackson  moved  to  the  house  of  her 

253 


254     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

brother-in-law,  Mr.  Crawford,  just  over  the  border 
in  South  Carolina,  near  the  Waxhaw  creek,  and 
there  his  early  years  were  passed.  His  education, 
obtained  in  an  "old-field  school,"  consisted  of  little 
more  than  the  "three  R's,"  and  even  in  that  limited 
sphere  his  attainments  were  but  scanty.  He  never 
learned,  in  the  course  of  his  life,  to  write  English 
correctly.  His  career  as  a  fighter  began  early.  In 
the  spring  and  early  summer  of  1780,  after  the 
disastrous  surrender  of  Lincoln's  army  at  Charles 
ton,  the  whole  of  South  Carolina  was  overrun  by 
the  British.  On  August  6  Jackson  was  present  at 
Hanging  Rock  when  Sumter  surprised  and  de 
stroyed  a  British  regiment.  Two  of  his  brothers, 
as  well  as  his  mother,  died  from  hardships  sustained 
in  the  war.  In  after  years  he  could  remember  how 
he  had  been  carried  as  prisoner  to  Camden  and 
nearly  starved  there,  and  how  a  brutal  officer  had 
cut  him  with  a  sword  because  he  refused  to  clean  his 
boots ;  these  reminiscences  kept  alive  his  hatred  for 
the  British,  and  doubtless  gave  unction  to  the  tre 
mendous  blow  dealt  them  at  New  Orleans. 

In  1781,  left  quite  alone  in  the  world,  he  was 
apprenticed  for  a  while  to  a  saddler.  At  one  time 
he  is  said  to  have  done  a  little  teaching  in  an  "old- 
field  school."  At  the  age  of  eighteen  he  entered 
the  law-office  of  Spruce  McCay,  in  Salisbury. 
While  there  he  was  said  to  have  been  "the  most 
roaring,  rollicking,  gamecocking,  horse-racing, 


From  the  painting  by  Thomas  Ball 


ANDREW   JACKSON  255 

card-playing,  mischievous  fellow"  that  had  ever 
been  seen  in  that  town.  Many  and  plentiful  were 
the  wild-oat  crops  sown  at  that  time  and  in  that 
part  of  the  country ;  and  in  such  sort  of  agriculture 
young  Jackson  was  much  more  proficient  than  in 
the  study  of  jurisprudence.  He  never  had  a  legal 
tone  of  mind,  or  any  but  the  crudest  knowledge 
of  law;  but  in  that  frontier  society  a  small  amount 
of  legal  knowledge  went  a  good  way,  and  in  1788 
he  was  appointed  public  prosecutor  for  the  western 
district  of  North  Carolina,  the  district  since  erected 
into  the  state  of  Tennessee.  The  emigrant  wagon- 
train  in  which  Jackson  journeyed  to  Nashville  car 
ried  news  of  the  ratification  of  the  Federal  consti 
tution  by  the  requisite  two  thirds  of  the  states.  He 
seems  soon  to  have  found  business  enough.  In  the 
April  term  of  1790,  out  of  192  cases  on  the  dockets 
of  the  county  court  at  Nashville,  Jackson  was  em 
ployed  as  counsel  in  42;  in  the  year  1794,  out  of 
397  cases  he  acted  as  counsel  in  228;  while  at  the 
same  time  he  was  practising  his  profession  in  the 
courts  of  other  counties.  The  great  number  of 
these  cases  is  an  indication  of  their  trivial  character. 
As  a  general  rule  they  were  either  actions  growing 
out  of  disputed  land-claims  or  simple  cases  of 
assault  and  battery.  Court  day  was  a  great 
occasion  in  that  wild  community,  bringing  crowds 
of  men  into  the  county  town  to  exchange  gossip, 
discuss  politics,  drink  whiskey,  and  break  heads. 


256     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

Probably  each  court  day  produced  as  many  new 
cases  as  it  settled. 

Amid  such  a  turbulent  population  the  public 
prosecutor  must  needs  be  a  man  of  nerve  and  re 
source.  It  was  a  state  of  chronic  riot,  in  which  he 
must  be  ever  ready  to  court  danger.  Jackson 
proved  himself  quite  equal  to  the  task  of  introduc 
ing  law  and  order  in  so  far  as  it  depended  on  him. 
"Just  inform  Mr.  Jackson,"  said  Gov.  Blount 
when  sundry  malfeasances  were  reported  to  him; 
"he  will  be  sure  to  do  his  duty,  and  the  offender 
will  be  punished."  Besides  the  lawlessness  of  the 
white  pioneer  population,  there  was  the  enmity  of 
the  Indians  to  be  reckoned  with.  In  the  immediate 
neighborhood  of  Nashville  the  Indians  murdered, 
on  the  average,  one  person  every  ten  days.  From 
1788  till  1795  Jackson  performed  the  journey  of 
nearly  two  hundred  miles  between  Nashville  and 
Jonesboro  twenty-two  times ;  and  on  these  occasions 
there  were  many  alarms  from  Indians,  which  some 
times  grew  into  a  forest  campaign.  In  one  of  these 
affairs,  having  nearly  lost  his  life  in  an  adventur 
ous  feat,  Jackson  made  the  characteristic  remark: 
"A  miss  is  as  good  as  a  mile;  you  see  how  near  I 
can  graze  danger."  It  was  this  wild  experience 
that  prepared  the  way  for  Jackson's  eminence  as 
an  Indian-fighter.  In  the  autumn  of  1794  the 
Cherokees  were  so  thoroughly  punished  by  Gen. 
Robertson's  famous  Nickajack  expedition  that 


ANDREW   JACKSON  257 

henceforth  they  thought  it  best  to  leave  the  Ten 
nessee  settlements  in  peace.  With  the  rapid  in 
crease  of  the  white  population  which  soon  followed, 
the  community  became  more  prosperous  and  more 
orderly.  In  the  general  prosperity  Jackson  had  an 
ample  share,  partly  through  the  diligent  practice 
of  his  profession,  partly  through  judicious  pur 
chases  and  sales  of  land. 

With  most  men  marriage  is  the  most  important 
event  of  their  life;  in  Jackson's  career  his  marriage 
was  peculiarly  important.  Rachel  Donelson  was  a 
native  of  North  Carolina,  daughter  of  Col.  John 
Donelson,  a  Virginia  surveyor  in  good  circum 
stances,  who  in  1780  migrated  to  the  neighborhood 
of  Nashville  in  a  very  remarkable  boat- journey  of 
2,000  miles  down  the  Holston  and  Tennessee  rivers 
and  up  the  Cumberland.  During  an  expedition  to 
Kentucky  some  time  afterward,  the  blooming 
Rachel  was  wooed  and  won  by  Capt.  Lewis 
Robards.  She  was  an  active,  sprightly,  and  inter 
esting  girl,  the  best  horsewoman  and  best  dancer 
in  that  country;  her  husband  seems  to  have  been  a 
young  man  of  tyrannical  and  unreasonably  jealous 
disposition.  In  Kentucky  they  lived  with  Mrs. 
Robards,  the  husband's  mother;  and,  as  was  com 
mon  in  a  new  society  where  houses  were  too  few 
and  far  between,  there  were  other  boarders  in  the 
family — among  them  the  late  Judge  Overton,  of 
Tennessee,  and  a  Mr.  Stone.  Presently  Robards 


258     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

made  complaints  against  his  wife,  in  which  he 
implicated  Stone.  According  to  Overton  and  the 
elder  Mrs.  Robards,  these  complaints  were  un 
reasonable  and  groundless,  but  the  affair  ended  in 
Robards  sending  his  wife  home  to  her  mother  in 
Tennessee.  This  was  in  1788.  Col.  Donelson  had 
been  murdered,  either  by  Indians  or  by  white 
desperadoes,  and  his  widow,  albeit  in  easy  circum 
stances,  felt  it  desirable  to  keep  boarders  as  a  means 
of  protection  against  the  Indians.  To  her  house 
came  Andrew  Jackson  on  his  arrival  at  Nashville, 
and  thither  about  the  same  time  came  Overton,  also 
fresh  from  his  law  studies.  These  two  young  men 
were  boarded  in  the  house  and  lodged  in  a  cabin 
hard  by.  At  about  the  same  time  Robards  became 
reconciled  with  his  wife,  and,  having  bought  land 
in  the  neighborhood,  came  to  dwell,  for  a  while  at 
Mrs.  Donelson's.  Throughout  life  Jackson  was 
noted  alike  for  spotless  purity  and  for  a  romantic 
and  chivalrous  respect  for  the  female  sex.  In  the 
presence  of  women  his  manner  was  always  dis 
tinguished  for  grave  and  courtly  politeness.  This 
involuntary  homage  to  woman  was  one  of  the  finest 
and  most  winsome  features  in  his  character. 

As  unconsciously  rendered  to  Mrs.  Robards,  it 
was  enough  to  revive  the  slumbering  demon  of 
jealousy  in  her  husband.  According  to  Overton's 
testimony,  Jackson's  conduct  was  irreproachable, 
but  there  were  high  words  between  him  and  Ro- 


ANDREW   JACKSON  259 

bards,  and,  not  wishing  to  make  further  trouble, 
he  changed  his  place  of  abode.  After  some  months 
Capt.  Robards  left  his  wife  and  went  to  Kentucky, 
threatening  by  and  by  to  return  and  "haunt  her" 
and  make  her  miserable.  In  the  autumn  of  1790 
rumors  of  his  intended  return  frightened  Mrs. 
Robards,  and  determined  her  to  visit  some  friends 
at  distant  Natchez  in  order  to  avoid  him.  In  pur 
suance  of  this  plan,  with  which  the  whole  neigh 
borhood  seems  to  have  concurred,  she  went  down 
the  river  in  company  with  the  venerable  Col.  Stark 
and  his  family.  As  the  Indians  were  just  then  on 
the  war-path,  Jackson  accompanied  the  party  with 
an  armed  escort,  returning  to  Nashville  as  soon  as 
he  had  seen  his  friends  safely  deposited  at  Natchez. 
While  these  things  were  going  on,  the  proceedings 
of  Capt.  Robards  were  characterized  by  a  sort  of 
Machiavelian  astuteness.  In  1791  Kentucky  was 
still  a  part  of  Virginia,  and,  according  to  the  code 
of  the  Old  Dominion,  if  a  husband  wished  to  obtain 
a  divorce  on  account  of  his  wife's  alleged  unfaith 
fulness,  he  must  procure  an  act  of  the  legislature 
empowering  him  to  bring  the  case  before  a  jury, 
and  authorizing  a  divorce  conditionally  upon  the 
jury's  finding  a  verdict  of  guilty. 

Early  in  1791  Robards  obtained  the  preliminary 
act  of  the  legislature  upon  his  declaration,  then 
false,  that  his  wife  had  gone  to  live  with  Jackson. 
Robards  deferred  further  action  for  more  than  two 


260     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

years.  Meanwhile  it  was  reported  and  believed  in 
the  west  that  a  divorce  had  been  granted,  and,  act 
ing  upon  this  report,  Jackson,  whose  chivalrous 
interest  in  Mrs.  Robards's  misfortunes  had  ripened 
into  sincere  affection,  went,  in  the  summer  of  1791, 
to  Natchez  and  married  her  there,  and  brought  her 
to  his  home  at  Nashville.  In  the  autumn  of  1793 
Capt.  Robards,  on  the  strength  of  the  facts  that 
undeniably  existed  since  the  act  of  the  Virginia 
legislature,  brought  his  case  into  court  and  obtained 
the  verdict  completing  the  divorce.  On  hearing  of 
this,  to  his  great  surprise,  in  December,  Jackson 
concluded  that  the  best  method  of  preventing 
future  cavil  was  to  procure  a  new  license  and  have 
the  marriage  ceremony  performed  again;  and  this 
was  done  in  January.  Jackson  was  certainly  to 
blame  for  not  taking  more  care  to  ascertain  the 
import  of  the  act  of  the  Virginia  legislature.  By 
a  carelessness  peculiarly  striking  in  a  lawyer,  he 
allowed  his  wife  to  be  placed  in  a  false  position. 
The  irregularity  of  the  marriage  was  indeed  atoned 
by  forty  years  of  honorable  and  happy  wed 
lock,  ending  only  with  Mrs.  Jackson's  death  in  De 
cember,  1828;  and  no  blame  was  attached  to  the 
parties  in  Nashville,  where  the  circumstances  were 
well  known.  But  the  story,  half  understood  and 
maliciously  warped,  grew  into  scandal  as  it  was 
passed  about  among  Jackson's  personal  enemies  or 
political  opponents ;  and  herein  some  of  the  bitterest 


ANDREW   JACKSON  261 

of  his  many  quarrels  had  their  source.  His  devo 
tion  to  Mrs.  Jackson  was  intense,  and  his  pistol 
was  always  ready  for  the  rash  man  who  should 
dare  to  speak  of  her  slightingly. 

In  January,  1796,  we  find  Jackson  sitting  in  the 
convention  assembled  at  Knoxville  for  making  a 
constitution  for  Tennessee,  and  tradition  has  it 
that  he  proposed  the  name  of  the  "Great  Crooked 
River"  as  the  name  for  the  new  state.  Among  the 
rules  adopted  by  the  convention,  one  is  quaintly 
significant:  "He  that  digresseth  from  the  subject 
to  fall  on  the  person  of  any  member  shall  be  sup 
pressed  by  the  speaker."  The  admission  of  Ten 
nessee  to  the  Union  was  effected  in  June,  1796,  in 
spite  of  earnest  opposition  from  the  Federalists,  and 
in  the  autumn  Jackson  was  chosen  as  the  single 
representative  in  congress.  When  the  house  had 
assembled,  he  heard  President  Washington  deliver 
in  person  his  last  message  to  congress.  He  was 
one  of  twelve  who  voted  against  the  adoption  of 
the  address  to  Washington  in  approval  of  his  ad 
ministration.  Jackson's  chief  objections  to  Wash 
ington's  government  were  directed  against  two  of 
its  most  salutary  and  admirable  acts — the  Jay 
treaty  with  Great  Britain,  and  Hamilton's  financial 
measures.  His  feeling  toward  the  Jay  treaty  was 
that  of  a  man  who  could  not  bear  to  see  anything 
but  blows  dealt  to  Great  Britain.  His  condemna 
tion  of  Hamilton's  policy  was  mingled  with  the  not 


262     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

unreasonable  feeling  of  distrust  which  he  had 
already  begun  to  harbor  against  a  national  bank. 
The  year  1797  was  a  season  of  financial  depression, 
and  the  general  paralysis  of  business  was  ascribed— 
no  doubt  too  exclusively — to  the  over-issue  of  notes 
by  the  national  bank.  Jackson's  antipathy  to  such 
an  institution  would  seem  to  have  begun  thus  early 
to  show  itself.  Of  his  other  votes  in  this  congress, 
one  was  for  an  appropriation  to  defray  the  expenses 
of  Sevier's  expedition  against  the  Cherokees,  which 
was  carried;  three  others  were  eminently  wise  and 
characteristic  of  the  man:  1.  For  finishing  the  three 
frigates  then  building  and  destined  to  such  renown 
-the  "Constitution,"  "Constellation,"  and  "United 
States."  2.  Against  the  further  payment  of  black 
mail  to  Algiers.  3.  Against  removing  "the  restric 
tion  which  confined  the  expenditure  of  public  money 
to  the  specific  objects  for  which  each  sum  was  ap 
propriated."  Another  vote,  silly  in  itself,  was 
characteristic  of  the  representative  from  a  rough 
frontier  community;  it  was  against  the  presumed 
extravagance  of  appropriating  $14,000  to  buy 
furniture  for  the  newly  built  White  House. 

Jackson's  course  was  warmly  approved  by  his 
constituents,  and  in  the  following  summer  he  was 
chosen  to  fill  a  vacancy  in  the  Federal  senate.  Of 
his  conduct  as  senator  nothing  is  known  beyond  the 
remark,  made  by  Jefferson  in  1824  to  Daniel 
Webster,  that  he  had  often,  when  presiding  in  the 


ANDREW   JACKSON  263 

senate,  seen  the  passionate  Jackson  get  up  to  speak 
and  then  choke  with  rage  so  that  he  could  not  utter 
a  word.  As  Parton  very  happily  suggests,  one 
need  not  wonder  at  this  if  one  remembers  what 
was  the  subject  chiefly  before  the  senate  during  the 
winter  of  1797-'8.  The  outrageous  insolence  of  the 
French  Directory  was  enough  to  arouse  the  wrath 
of  far  tamer  and  less  patriotic  spirits  than  Jack 
son's.  Yet  in  a  letter  written  at  that  time  he  seems 
eager  to  see  the  British  throne  overturned  by  Bona 
parte.  In  April,  1798,  he  resigned  his  seat  in  the 
senate,  and  was  appointed  judge  in  the  supreme 
court  of  Tennessee.  He  retained  this  office  for  six 
years,  but  nothing  is  known  of  his  decisions,  as  the 
practice  of  recording  decisions  began  only  with  his 
successor,  Judge  Overton.  During  this  period  he 
was  much  harassed  by  business  troubles  arising 
from  the  decline  in  the  value  of  land  consequent 
upon  the  financial  crisis  of  1798.  At  length,  in 
1804,  he  resigned  his  judgeship  in  order  to  devote 
his  attention  exclusively  to  his  private  affairs.  He 
paid  up  all  his  debts,  and  engaged  extensively  both 
in  planting  and  in  trade.  He  was  noted  for  fair 
and  honorable  dealing,  his  credit  was  always  excel 
lent,  and  a  note  with  his  name  on  it  was  considered 
as  good  as  gold.  He  had  a  clear  head  for  business, 
and  was  never  led  astray  by  the  delusions  about 
paper  money  by  which  American  frontier  com 
munities  have  so  often  been  infected.  His  plan- 


264     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

tation  was  well  managed,  and  his  slaves  kindly  and 
considerately  treated. 

But  while  genial  and  kind  toward  his  inferiors, 
he  was  among  his  fellow-citizens  apt  to  be  rough 
and  quarrelsome.  In  1795  he  fought  a  duel  with 
Avery,  an  opposing  counsel,  over  some  hasty  words 
that  had  passed  in  the  court-room.  Next  year  he 
quarrelled  with  John  Sevier,  governor  of  Tennes 
see,  and  came  near  shooting  him  "at  sight."  Sevier 
had  alluded  to  the  circumstances  of  his  marriage. 
Ten  years  afterward,  for  a  similar  offence,  though 
complicated  with  other  matters  in  the  course  of  a 
long  and  extremely  silly  quarrel,  he  fought  a  duel 
with  Charles  Dickinson.  The  circumstances  were 
revolting,  but  showed  Jackson's  wonderful  nerve 
and  rare  skill  in  "grazing  danger."  Dickinson  was 
killed,  and  Jackson  received  a  wound  from  the 
effects  of  which  he  never  recovered.  In  later  years, 
when  he  was  a  candidate  for  the  presidency,  the 
number  of  his  violent  quarrels  was  variously  reck 
oned  by  his  enemies  at  from  a  dozen  to  a  hundred. 
In  1805  Jackson  was  visited  by  Aaron  Burr,  who 
was  then  preparing  his  mysterious  southwestern 
expedition.  Burr  seems  to  have  wished,  if  possible, 
to  make  use  of  Jackson's  influence  in  raising  troops, 
but  without  indicating  his  purpose.  In  this  he  was 
unsuccessful,  but  Jackson  appears  to  have  regarded 
the  charge  of  treason  brought  against  Burr  as  ill- 
founded. 


ANDREW    JACKSON  265 

At  Richmond,  while  Burr's  trial  was  going  on, 
Jackson  made  a  speech  attacking  Jefferson.  He 
thus  made  himself  obnoxious  to  Madison,  then 
secretary  of  state,  and  afterward,  in  1808,  he  de 
clared  his  preference  for  Monroe  over  Madison  as 
candidate  for  the  presidency.  He  was  known  as 
unfriendly  to  Madison's  administration,  but  this  did 
not  prevent  him  from  offering  his  services,  with 
those  of  2,500  men,  as  soon  as  war  was  declared 
against  Great  Britain  in  1812.  Since  1801  he  had 
been  commander-in-chief  of  the  Tennessee  militia, 
but  there  had  been  no  occasion  for  him  to  take  the 
field.  Late  in  1812,  after  the  disasters  in  the  north 
west,  it  was  feared  that  the  British  might  make  an 
attempt  upon  New  Orleans,  and  Jackson  was 
ordered  down  to  Natchez,  at  the  head  of  2,000  men. 
He  went  in  high  spirits,  promising  to  plant  the 
American  eagle  upon  the  ramparts  of  Mobile, 
Pensacola,  and  St.  Augustine,  if  so  directed.  On 
February  6,  as  it  had  become  evident  that  the 
British  were  not  meditating  a  southward  expedi 
tion,  the  new  secretary  of  war,  Armstrong,  sent 
word  to  Jackson  to  disband  his  troops.  This  stupid 
order  reached  the  general  at  Natchez  toward  the 
end  of  March  and  inflamed  his  wrath.  He  took 
upon  himself  the  responsibility  of  marching  his 
men  home  in  a  body,  an  act  in  which  the  govern 
ment  afterward  acquiesced  and  reimbursed  Jackson 
for  the  expense  involved.  During  this  march  Jack- 


266     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

son  became  the  idol  of  his  troops,  and  his  sturdi- 
ness  won  him  the  nickname  of  "Old  Hickory,"  by 
which  he  was  affectionately  known  among  his 
friends  and  followers  for  the  rest  of  his  life. 

Shortly  after  his  arrival  at  Nashville  there 
occurred  an  affray  between  Jackson  and  Thomas 
H.  Benton,  growing  out  of  an  unusually  silly  duel 
in  which  Jackson  had  acted  as  second  to  the  antago 
nist  of  Benton's  brother.  In  a  tavern  at  Nashville, 
Jackson  undertook  to  horsewhip  Benton,  and  in  the 
ensuing  scuffle  the  latter  was  pitched  down-stairs, 
while  Jackson  got  a  bullet  in  his  left  shoulder  which 
he  carried  for  more  than  twenty  years.  Jackson 
and  Benton  had  formerly  been  friends.  After  this 
affair  they  did  not  meet  again  until  1823,  when 
both  were  in  the  U.  S.  senate.  Their  friendship  was 
then  renewed. 

The  war  with  Great  Britain  was  complicated  with 
an  Indian  war  which  could  not  in  any  case  have 
been  avoided.  The  westward  progress  of  the  white 
settlers  toward  the  Mississippi  river  was  gradually 
driving  the  red  man  from  his  hunting-grounds; 
and  the  celebrated  Tecumseh  had  formed  a  scheme, 
quite  similar  to  that  of  Pontiac  fifty  years  earlier, 
of  uniting  all  the  tribes  between  Florida  and  the 
Great  Lakes  in  a  grand  attempt  to  drive  back  the 
white  men.  This  scheme  was  partially  frustrated 
in  the  autumn  of  1811  while  Tecumseh  was  preach 
ing  his  crusade  among  the  Cherokees,  Creeks,  and 


ANDREW   JACKSON  267 

Seminoles.  During  his  absence  his  brother,  known 
as  the  Prophet,  attacked  Gen.  Harrison  at  Tippe- 
canoe  and  was  overwhelmingly  defeated.  The  war 
with  Great  Britain  renewed  Tecumseh's  oppor 
tunity,  and  his  services  to  the  enemy  were  extremely 
valuable  until  his  death  in  the  battle  of  the  Thames. 
Tecumseh's  principal  ally  in  the  south  was  a  half- 
breed  Creek  chieftain  named  Weathersford.  On 
the  shore  of  Lake  Tensaw,  in  the  southern  part  of 
what  is  now  Alabama,  was  a  stockaded  fortress 
known  as  Fort  Minims.  There  many  of  the  settlers 
had  taken  refuge.  On  August  30,  1813,  this 
stronghold  was  surprised  by  Weathersford  at  the 
head  of  1,000  Creek  warriors,  and  more  than  400 
men,  women,  and  children  were  massacred.  The 
news  of  this  dreadful  affair  aroused  the  people  of 
the  southwest  to  vengeance.  Men  and  money  were 
raised  by  the  state  of  Tennessee,  and,  before  he 
had  fully  recovered  from  the  wound  received  in  the 
Benton  affray,  Jackson  took  the  field  at  the  head 
of  2,500  men.  Now  for  the  first  time  he  had  a 
chance  to  show  his  wonderful  military  capacity,  his 
sleepless  vigilance,  untiring  patience,  and  unrivalled 
talent  as  a  leader  of  men.  The  difficulties  encoun 
tered  were  formidable  in  the  extreme.  In  that  fron 
tier  wilderness  the  business  of  the  commissariat  was 
naturally  ill  managed,  and  the  men,  who  under  the 
most  favorable  circumstances  had  little  idea  of 
military  subordination,  were  part  of  the  time 


268     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

mutinous  from  hunger.  More  than  once  Jackson 
was  obliged  to  use  one  half  of  his  army  to  keep 
the  other  half  from  disbanding.  In  view  of  these 
difficulties,  the  celerity  of  his  movements  and  the 
force  with  which  he  struck  the  enemy  were  truly 
marvellous.  The  Indians  were  defeated  at  Tal- 
luschatches  and  Talladega. 

At  length,  on  March  27,  1814,  having  been  re- 
enforced  by  a  regiment  of  U.  S.  infantry,  Jackson 
struck  the  decisive  blow  at  Tohopeka,  otherwise 
known  as  the  Horseshoe  Bend  of  the  Tallapoosa 
river.  In  this  bloody  battle  no  quarter  was  given, 
and  the  strength  of  the  Creek  nation  was  finally 
broken.  Jackson  pursued  the  remnant  to  their 
place  of  refuge  called  the  Holy  Ground,  upon 
which  the  medicine-men  had  declared  that  no  white 
man  could  set  foot  and  live.  Such  of  the  Creek 
chieftains  as  had  not  fled  to  Florida  now  sur 
rendered.  The  American  soldiers  were  ready  to 
kill  Weathersford  in  revenge  for  Fort  Mimms; 
but  Jackson,  who  was  by  no  means  wanting  in 
magnanimity,  spared  his  life  and  treated  him  so 
well  that  henceforth  he  and  his  people  remained 
on  good  terms  with  the  white  men.  Among  the 
officers  who  served  under  Jackson  in  this  remark 
able  campaign  were  two  who  in  later  years  played 
an  important  part  in  the  history  of  the  southwest 
—Samuel  Houston  and  David  Crockett.  The 
Creek  war  was  one  of  critical  importance.  It  was 


ANDREW   JACKSON  269 

the  last  occasion  on  which  the  red  men  could  put 
forth  sufficient  power  to  embarrass  the  U.  S.  gov 
ernment.  More  than  any  other  single  battle  that 
of  Tohopeka  marks  the  downfall  of  Indian  power. 
Its  immediate  effects  upon  the  war  with  Great 
Britain  were  very  great.  By  destroying  the  only 
hostile  power  within  the  southwestern  territory  it 
made  it  possible  to  concentrate  the  military  force  of 
the  border  states  upon  any  point,  however  remote, 
that  might  be  threatened  by  the  British.  More 
specifically,  it  made  possible  the  great  victory  at 
New  Orleans.  Throughout  the  whole  of  this  cam 
paign,  in  which  Jackson  showed  such  indomitable 
energy,  he  was  suffering  from  illness  such  as  would 
have  kept  any  ordinary  man  groaning  in  bed,  be 
sides  that  for  most  of  the  time  his  left  arm  had 
to  be  supported  in  a  sling.  The  tremendous  pluck 
exhibited  by  William  of  Orange  at  Neerwinden, 
and  so  justly  celebrated  by  Macaulay,  was  no 
greater  than  Jackson  showed  in  Alabama.  His 
pluck  was  equalled  by  his  thoroughness.  Many 
generals  after  victory  are  inclined  to  relax  their 
efforts.  Not  so  Jackson,  who  followed  up  every 
success  with  furious  persistence,  and  whose  admir 
able  maxim  was  that  in  war  "until  all  is  done,  noth 
ing  is  done." 

On  May  31,  1814,  Jackson  was  made  major- 
general  in  the  regular  army,  and  was  appointed  to 
command  the  Department  of  the  South.  It  was 


270     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

then  a  matter  of  dispute  whether  Mobile  belonged 
to  Spain  or  to  the  United  States.  In  August, 
Jackson  occupied  the  town  and  made  his  head 
quarters  there.  With  the  consent  of  Spain  the 
British  used  Florida  as  a  base  of  operations  and 
established  themselves  at  Pensacola.  Jackson 
wrote  to  Washington  for  permission  to  attack  them 
there;  but  the  government  was  loth  to  sanction  an 
invasion  of  Spanish  territory  until  the  complicity 
of  Spain  with  our  enemy  should  be  proved  beyond 
cavil.  The  letter  from  Sec.  Armstrong  to  this 
effect  did  not  reach  Jackson.  The  capture  of 
Washington  by  the  British  prevented  his  receiv 
ing  orders  and  left  him  to  act  upon  his  own  respon 
sibility,  a  kind  of  situation  from  which  he  was 
never  known  to  flinch. 

On  September  14  the  British  advanced  against 
Mobile ;  but  in  their  attack  upon  the  outwork,  Fort 
Bowyer,  they  met  with  a  disastrous  repulse.  They 
retreated  to  Pensacola,  whither  Jackson  followed 
them  with  3,000  men.  On  November  7  he  stormed 
the  town.  His  next  move  would  have  been  against 
Fort  Barrancas,  six  miles  distant  at  the  mouth  of 
the  harbor.  By  capturing  this  post  he  would  have 
entrapped  the  British  fleet  and  might  have  forced 
it  to  surrender;  but  the  enemy  forestalled  him  by 
blowing  up  the  fort  and  beating  a  precipitate  re 
treat.  By  thus  driving  the  British  from  Florida 
— an  act  for  which  he  was  stupidly  blamed  by  the 


ANDREW   JACKSON  271 

Federalist  press — Jackson  now  found  himself  free 
to  devote  all  his  energies  to  the  task  of  defending 
New  Orleans,  and  there,  after  an  arduous  journey, 
he  arrived  on  December  2.  The  British  expedition 
directed  against  that  city  was  more  formidable 
than  any  other  that  we  had  to  encounter  during 
that  war.  Its  purpose  was  also  more  deadly.  In 
the  north  the  British  warfare  had  been  directed 
chiefly  toward  defending  Canada  and  gaining  such 
a  foothold  upon  our  frontier  as  might  be  useful  in 
making  terms  at  the  end  of  the  war.  The  burn 
ing  of  Washington  was  intended  chiefly  for  an 
insult,  and  had  but  slight  military  significance ;  but 
the  expedition  against  New  Orleans  was  intended 
to  make  a  permanent  conquest  of  the  lower  Mis 
sissippi  valley  and  to  secure  for  Great  Britain  the 
western  bank  of  the  river.  The  fall  of  Napoleon 
had  set  free  some  of  Wellington's  finest  troops  for 
service  in  America,  and  in  December  a  force  of 
12,000  men,  under  command  of  Wellington's 
brother-in-law,  the  gallant  Sir  Edward  Pakenham, 
was  landed  below  New  Orleans.  To  oppose  these 
veterans  of  the  Spanish  peninsula,  Jackson  had 
6,000  of  that  sturdy  race  whose  fathers  had  van 
quished  Ferguson  at  King's  Mountain,  and  whose 
children  so  nearly  vanquished  Grant  at  Shiloh. 

After  considerable  preliminary  manoeuvring  and 
skirmishing,  Jackson  intrenched  himself  in  a  strong 
position  near  the  Bienvenu  and  Chalmette  planta- 


272     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

tions  and  awaited  the  approach  of  the  enemy.  On 
January  8  Pakenham  was  unwise  enough  to  try 
to  overwhelm  him  by  a  direct  assault.  In  less  than 
half  an  hour  the  British  were  in  full  retreat,  leav 
ing  2,600  of  their  number  killed  and  wounded. 
Among  the  slain  was  Pakenham.  The  American 
loss  was  eight  killed  and  thirteen  wounded.  Never, 
perhaps,  in  the  history  of  the  world  has  a  battle 
been  fought  between  armies  of  civilized  men  with 
so  great  a  disparity  of  loss.  It  was  also  the  most 
complete  and  overwhelming  defeat  that  any  Eng 
lish  army  has  ever  experienced.  News  travelled  so 
slowly  then  that  this  great  victory,  like  the  three 
last  naval  victories  of  the  war,  occurred  after  peace 
had  been  made  by  the  commissioners  at  Ghent. 
Nevertheless,  no  American  can  regret  that  the 
battle  was  fought.  The  insolence  and  rapacity  of 
Great  Britain  had  richly  deserved  such  castigation. 
Moreover,  if  she  once  gained  a  foothold  in  the 
Mississippi  valley,  it  might  have  taken  an  armed 
force  to  dislodge  her  in  spite  of  the  treaty,  for  in 
the  matter  of  the  western  frontier  posts  after 
1783  she  had  by  no  means  acted  in  good  faith. 
Jackson's  victory  decided  that  henceforth  the  Mis 
sissippi  valley  belonged  indisputably  to  the  people 
of  the  United  States.  It  was  the  recollection  of 
that  victory,  along  with  the  exploits  of  Hull  and 
Decatur,  Perry  and  McDonough,  which  caused 
the  Holy  Alliance  to  look  upon  the  Monroe 


ANDREW   JACKSON  273 

doctrine  as  something  more  than  an  idle  threat. 
All  over  the  United  States  the  immediate  effect 
of  the  news  was  electric,  and  it  was  enhanced  by 
the  news  of  peace  which  arrived  a  few  days  later. 
By  this  "almost  incredible  victory,"  as  the  Na 
tional  Intelligencer  called  it,  the  credit  of  the 
American  arms  upon  land  was  fully  restored.  Not 
only  did  the  administration  glory  in  it,  as  was 
natural,  but  the  opposition  lauded  it  for  a  differ 
ent  reason,  as  an  example  of  what  American  mili 
tary  heroism  could  do  in  spite  of  inadequate  sup 
port  from  government.  Thus  praised  by  all 
parties,  Jackson,  who  before  the  Creek  war  had 
been  little  known  outside  of  Tennessee,  became 
at  once  the  foremost  man  in  the  United  States. 
People  in  the  north,  while  throwing  up  their  hats 
for  him,  were  sometimes  heard  to  ask:  "Who  is 
this  Gen.  Jackson?  To  what  state  does  he  belong?" 
Henceforth  until  the  civil  war  he  occupied  the  most 
prominent  place  in  the  popular  mind. 

After  his  victory  Jackson  remained  three  months 
in  New  Orleans,  in  some  conflict  with  the  civil  au 
thorities  of  the  town,  which  he  found  it  necessary 
to  hold  under  martial  law.  In  April  he  returned 
to  Nashville,  still  retaining  his  military  command 
of  the  southwest.  He  soon  became  involved  in  a 
quarrel  with  Mr.  Crawford,  the  secretary  of  war, 
who  had  undertaken  to  modify  some  provisions  in 
his  treaty  with  the  Creeks.  Jackson  was  also  justly 


274     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

incensed  by  the  occasional  issue  of  orders  from  the 
war  department  directly  to  his  subordinate  officers; 
such  orders  sometimes  stupidly  thwarted  his  plans. 
The  usual  course  for  a  commanding  general  thus 
annoyed  would  be  to  make  a  private  representation 
to  the  government;  but  here,  as  ordinarily,  while 
quite  right  in  his  position,  Jackson  was  violent  and 
overbearing  in  his  methods.  He  published,  April 
22,  1817,  an  order  forbidding  his  subordinate  offi 
cers  to  pay  heed  to  any  order  from  the  war  depart 
ment  unless  issued  through  him.  Mr.  Calhoun, 
who  in  October  succeeded  Crawford  as  secretary 
of  war,  gracefully  yielded  the  point;  but  the  public 
had  meanwhile  been  somewhat  scandalized  by  the 
collision  of  authorities.  In  private  conversation 
Gen.  Scott  had  alluded  to  Jackson's  conduct  as 
savoring  of  mutiny.  This  led  to  an  angry  corre 
spondence  between  the  two  generals,  ending  in  a 
challenge  from  Jackson,  which  Scott  declined  on 
the  ground  that  duelling  is  a  wicked  and  unchris 
tian  custom. 

Affairs  in  Florida  now  demanded  attention. 
That  country  had  become  a  nest  of  outlaws,  and 
chaos  reigned  supreme  there.  Many  of  the  de 
feated  Creeks  had  found  a  refuge  in  Florida,  and 
runaway  negroes  from  the  plantations  of  Georgia 
and  South  Carolina  were  continually  escaping 
thither.  During  the  late  war  British  officers  and 
adventurers,  acting  on  their  own  responsibility 


[Fac-aimile  letter  from  Andrew  Jackson  to  James  Knox  Polk] 


ANDREW   JACKSON  275 

upon  this  neutral  soil,  committed  many  acts  which 
their  government  would  never  have  sanctioned. 
They  stirred  up  Indians  and  negroes  to  commit 
atrocities  on  the  United  States  frontier.  The 
Spanish  government  was  at  that  time  engaged  in 
warfare  with  its  revolted  colonies  in  South  Amer 
ica,  and  the  coasts  of  Florida  became  a  haunt  for 
contraband  traders,  privateers,  and  filibusters. 
One  adventurer  would  announce  his  intention  to 
make  Florida  a  free  republic;  another  would  go 
about  committing  robbery  on  his  own  account;  a 
third  would  set  up  an  agency  for  kidnapping 
negroes  on  speculation.  The  disorder  was  hideous. 
On  the  Appalachicola  river  the  British  had  built  a 
fort,  arid  amply  stocked  it  with  arms  and  ammuni 
tion,  to  serve  as  a  base  of  operations  against  the 
United  States.  On  the  departure  of  the  British 
the  fort  was  seized  and  held  by  negroes.  This 
alarmed  the  slave-owners  of  Georgia,  and  in  July, 
1816,  United  States  troops,  with  permission  from 
the  Spanish  authorities,  marched  in  and  bombarded 
the  negro  fort.  A  hot  shot  found  its  way  into  the 
magazine,  three  hundred  negroes  were  blown  into 
fragments,  and  the  fort  was  demolished.  In  this 
case  the  Spaniards  were  ready  to  leave  to  United 
States  troops  a  disagreeable  work,  for  which  their 
own  force  was  incompetent.  Every  day  made  it 
plainer  that  Spain  was  quite  unable  to  preserve 
order  in  Florida,  and  for  this  reason  the  United 


276    LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

States  entered  upon  negotiations  for  the  purchase 
of  that  country.  Meanwhile  the  turmoil  increased. 
White  men  were  murdered  by  Indians,  and  United 
States  troops,  under  Col.  Twiggs,  captured  and 
burned  a  considerable  Seminole  village,  known  as 
Fowltown.  The  Indians  retorted  by  the  massacre 
of  fifty  people  who  were  ascending  the  Appalachi- 
cola  river  in  boats;  some  of  the  victims  were  tor 
tured  with  fire-brands. 

Jackson  was  now  ordered  to  the  frontier.  He 
wrote  at  once  to  President  Monroe:  "Let  it  be  sig 
nified  to  me  through  any  channel  (say  Mr.  John 
Rhea)  that  the  possession  of  the  Floridas  would 
be  desirable  to  the  United  States,  and  in  sixty  days 
it  will  be  accomplished."  Mr.  Rhea  was  a  repre 
sentative  from  Tennessee,  a  confidential  friend  of 
both  Jackson  and  Monroe.  The  president  was  ill 
when  Jackson's  letter  reached  him,  and  does  not 
seem  to  have  given  it  due  consideration.  On  re 
ferring  to  it  a  year  later  he  could  not  remember 
that  he  had  ever  seen  it  before.  Rhea,  however, 
seems  to  have  written  a  letter  to  Jackson,  telling 
him  that  the  president  approved  of  his  suggestion. 
As  to  this  point  the  united  testimony  of  Jackson, 
Rhea,  and  Judge  Overton  seems  conclusive. 
Afterward  Mr.  Monroe,  through  Rhea,  seems  to 
have  requested  Jackson  to  burn  this  letter,  and  an 
entry  on  the  general's  letter-book  shows  that  it  was 
accordingly  burned,  April  12,  1819.  There  can 


ANDREW   JACKSON  277 

be  no  doubt  that,  whatever  the  president's  intention 
may  have  been,  or  how  far  it  may  have  been  cor 
rectly  interpreted  by  Rhea,  the  general  honestly 
considered  himself  authorized  to  take  possession  of 
Florida  on  the  ground  that  the  Spanish  govern 
ment  had  shown  itself  incompetent  to  prevent  the 
denizens  of  that  country  from  engaging  in  hos 
tilities  against  the  United  States.  Jackson  acted 
upon  this  belief  with  his  accustomed  promptness. 
He  raised  troops  in  Tennessee  and  neighboring 
states,  invaded  Florida  in  March,  1818,  captured 
St.  Marks,  and  pushed  on  to  the  Seminole  head 
quarters  on  the  Suwanee  river.  In  less  than  three 
months  from  this  time  he  had  overthrown  the 
Indians  and  brought  order  out  of  chaos.  His 
measures  wrere  praised  by  his  friends  as  vigorous, 
while  his  enemies  stigmatized  them  as  high-handed. 
In  one  instance  his  conduct  was  open  to  serious 
question. 

At  St.  Marks  his  troops  captured  an  aged 
Scotch  trader  and  friend  of  the  Indians,  named 
Alexander  Arbuthnot;  near  Suwanee,  some  time 
afterward,  they  seized  Robert  Ambrister,  a  young 
English  lieutenant  of  marines,  nephew  of  the  gov 
ernor  of  New  Providence.  Jackson  believed  that 
these  men  had  incited  the  Indians  to  make  war 
upon  the  United  States,  and  were  now  engaged 
in  aiding  and  abetting  them  in  their  hostilities. 
They  were  tried  by  a  court-martial  at  St.  Marks. 


278    LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

On  very  insufficient  evidence  Arbuthnot  was  found 
guilty  and  sentenced  to  be  hanged.  Appearances 
were  somewhat  more  strongly  against  Ambrister. 
He  did  not  make  it  clear  what  his  business  was  in 
Florida,  and  threw  himself  upon  the  mercy  of  the 
court,  which  at  first  condemned  him  to  be  shot, 
but  on  further  consideration  commuted  the  sen 
tence  to  fifty  lashes  and  a  year's  imprisonment. 
Jackson  arbitrarily  revived  the  first  sentence,  and 
Ambrister  was  accordingly  shot.  A  few  minutes 
afterward  Arbuthnot  was  hanged  from  the  yard- 
arm  of  his  own  ship,  declaring  with  his  last  breath 
that  his  country  would  avenge  him.  In  this 
lamentable  affair  Jackson  doubtless  acted  from  a 
sense  of  duty;  as  he  himself  said,  "My  God  would 
not  have  smiled  on  me,  had  I  punished  only  the 
poor  ignorant  savages,  and  spared  the  white  men 
who  set  them  on."  Here,  as  elsewhere,  however, 
when  under  the  influence  of  strong  feeling,  he 
showed  himself  utterly  incapable  of  estimating  evi 
dence.  The  case  against  both  the  victims  was  so 
weak  that  a  fair-minded  and  prudent  commander 
would  surely  have  pardoned  them;  while  the  inter 
ference  with  the  final  sentence  of  the  court,  in 
Ambrister's  case,  was  an  act  that  can  hardly  be 
justified.  Throughout  life  Jackson  was  perpet 
ually  acting  with  violent  energy  upon  the  strength 
of  opinions  hastily  formed  and  based  upon  inade 
quate  data.  Fortunately,  his  instincts  were  apt  to 


ANDREW    JACKSON  279 

be  sound,  and  in  many  most  important  instances, 
his  violent  action  was  highly  beneficial  to  his  coun 
try;  but  a  man  of  such  temperament  is  liable  to 
make  serious  mistakes. 

On  his  way  home,  hearing  that  some  Indians  had 
sought  refuge  in  Pensacola,  Jackson  captured  the 
town,  turned  out  the  Spanish  governor,  and  left 
a  garrison  of  his  own  there.  He  had  now  virtually 
conquered  Florida,  but  he  had  moved  too  fast  for 
the  government  at  Washington.  He  had  gone 
further,  perhaps,  than  was  permissible  in  trespass 
ing  upon  neutral  territory;  and  his  summary  exe 
cution  of  two  British  subjects  aroused  furious 
excitement  in  England.  For  a  moment  we  seemed 
on  the  verge  of  war  with  Great  Britain  and  Spain 
at  once.  Whatever  authority  President  Monroe 
may  have  intended,  through  the  Rhea  letter,  to  con 
fer  upon  Jackson,  he  certainly  felt  that  the  general 
had  gone  too  far.  With  one  exception,  all  his 
cabinet  agreed  with  him  that  it  would  be  best  to 
disavow  Jackson's  acts  and  make  reparation  for 
them.  But  John  Quincy  Adams,  secretary  of 
state,  felt  equal  to  the  task  of  dealing  with  the 
two  foreign  powers,  and  upon  his  advice  the  ad 
ministration  decided  to  assume  the  responsibility 
for  what  Jackson  had  done.  Pensacola  and  St. 
Marks  were  restored  to  Spain,  and  an  order  of 
Jackson's  for  the  seizing  of  St.  Augustine  was 
countermanded  by  the  president.  But  Adams  rep- 


280     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

resented  to  Spain  that  the  American  general,  in 
his  invasion  of  Florida,  was  virtually  assisting  the 
Spanish  government  in  maintaining  order  there; 
and  to  Great  Britain  he  justified  the  execution  of 
Arbuthnot  and  Ambrister  on  the  ground  that  their 
conduct  had  been  such  that  they  had  forfeited  their 
allegiance  and  become  virtual  outlaws.  Spain  and 
Great  Britain  accepted  the  explanations;  had  either 
nation  felt  in  the  mood  for  war  with  the  United 
States,  it  might  have  been  otherwise. 

As  soon  as  the  administration  had  adopted  Jack 
son's  measures,  they  were  for  that  reason  attacked 
in  Congress  by  Clay,  and  this  was  the  beginning 
of  the  bitter  and  lifelong  feud  between  Jackson 
and  Clay.  In  1819  the  purchase  of  Florida  from 
Spain  was  effected,  and  in  1821  Jackson  was  ap 
pointed  governor  of  that  territory.  In  1823  he 
was  elected  to  the  U.  S.  senate.  Some  of  his 
friends,  under  the  lead  of  William  B.  Lewis,  had 
already  conceived  the  idea  of  making  him  presi 
dent.  At  first  Gen.  Jackson  cast  ridicule  upon 
the  idea.  "Do  they  suppose,"  said  he,  "that  I  am 
such  a  d — d  fool  as  to  think  myself  fit  for  presi 
dent  of  the  United  States?  No,  sir,  I  know  what 
I  am  fit  for.  I  can  command  a  body  of  men  in 
a  rough  way,  but  I  am  not  fit  to  be  president." 
Such  is  the  anecdote  told  by  H.  M.  Brackenridge, 
who  was  Jackson's  secretary  in  Florida.  In  1821 
the  general  felt  old  and  weak,  and  had  made  up 


ANDREW   JACKSON  281 

his  mind  to  spend  his  remaining  days  in  peace  on 
his  farm.  Of  personal  ambition,  as  ordinarily 
understood,  Jackson  had  much  less  than  many 
other  men.  But  he  was,  like  most  men,  susceptible 
to  flattery,  and  the  discovery  of  his  immense  popu 
larity  no  doubt  went  far  to  persuade  him  that  he 
might  do  credit  to  himself  as  president.  On  July 
20,  1822,  he  was  nominated  for  that  office  by  the 
legislature  of  Tennessee.  On  February  22,  1824, 
he  was  nominated  by  a  Federalist  convention  at 
Harrisburg,  Pa.,  and  on  March  4  following  by  a 
Republican  convention  at  the  same  place.  The 
regular  nominee  of  the  congressional  caucus  was 
William  H.  Crawford,  of  Georgia.  The  other 
candidates  were  John  Quincy  Adams  and  Henry 
Clay.  There  was  a  general  agreement  upon  Cal- 
houn  for  the  vice-presidency.  All  the  candidates 
belonged  to  the  Republican  party,  which  had  kept 
the  presidency  since  Jefferson's  election  in  1800. 
The  Federalists  were  hopelessly  discredited  by  their 
course  in  the  war  of  181 2 -'15.  Of  the  four  candi 
dates  Adams  and  Clay  were  loose  constructionists, 
while  Crawford  and  Jackson  were  strict  con 
structionists,  and  in  this  difference  was  fore 
shadowed  a  new  division  of  parties.  At  the  elec 
tion  in  November,  1824,  there  were  99  electoral 
votes  for  Jackson,  84  for  Adams,  41  for  Crawford, 
and  37  for  Clay. 

As  none  of  the  candidates  had  a  majority,  it  was 


282     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

left  for  the  house  of  representatives  to  choose  a 
president  from  the  three  highest  names  on  the  list, 
in  accordance  with  the  twelfth  amendment  to  the 
constitution.  As  Clay  was  thus  rendered  ineligible, 
there  was  naturally  some  scheming  among  the 
friends  of  the  other  candidates  to  secure  his  power 
ful  co-operation.  Clay  and  his  friends  quite 
naturally  supported  the  other  loose-constructionist 
candidate,  Adams,  with  the  result  that  13  states 
voted  for  Adams,  7  for  Jackson,  and  4  for  Craw 
ford.  Adams  thus  became  president,  and  Jack 
son's  friends,  in  their  disappointment,  hungered  for 
a  "grievance"  upon  which  they  might  vent  their 
displeasure,  and  which  might  serve  as  a  "rallying 
cry"  for  the  next  campaign.  Benton,  who  was 
now  one  of  Jackson's  foremost  supporters,  went 
so  far  as  to  maintain  that,  because  Jackson  had  a 
greater  number  of  electoral  votes  than  any  other 
candidate,  the  house  was  virtually  "defying  the  will 
of  the  people"  in  choosing  any  name  but  his.  To 
this  it  was  easily  answered  that  in  any  case  our 
electoral  college,  which  was  one  of  the  most  de 
liberately  framed  devices  of  the  constitution,  gives 
but  a  very  indirect  and  partial  expression  of  the 
"will  of  the  people";  and  furthermore,  if  Benton's 
argument  was  sound,  why  should  the  constitution 
have  provided  for  an  election  by  congress,  instead 
of  allowing  a  simple  plurality  in  the  college  to  de 
cide  the  election?  The  extravagance  of  Benton's 


ANDREW    JACKSON  283 

objection,  coming  from  so  able  a  source,  is  an  index 
to  the  bitter  disappointment  of  Jackson's  followers. 
The  needed  "grievance"  was  furnished  when 
Adams  selected  Clay  as  his  secretary  of  state. 
Many  of  Jackson's  friends  interpreted  this  ap 
pointment  as  the  result  of  a  bargain  whereby  Clay 
had  made  Adams  president  in  consideration  of 
obtaining  the  first  place  in  the  cabinet,  carrying 
with  it,  according  to  the  notion  then  prevalent,  a 
fair  prospect  of  the  succession  to  the  presidency. 
It  was  natural  enough  for  the  friends  of  a  disap 
pointed  candidate  to  make  such  a  charge.  It  was 
to  Benton's  credit  that  he  always  scouted  the  idea 
of  a  corrupt  bargain  between  Adams  and  Clay. 
Many  people,  however,  believed  it.  In  congress, 
John  Randolph's  famous  allusion  to  the  "coalition 
between  Blifil  and  Black  George — the  Puritan  and 
the  blackleg" — led  to  a  duel  between  Randolph  and 
Clay,  which  served  to  impress  the  matter  upon  the 
popular  mind  without  enlightening  it;  the  pistol 
is  of  small  value  as  an  agent  of  enlightenment. 
The  charge  was  utterly  without  support  and  in 
every  way  improbable.  The  excellence  of  the  ap 
pointment  of  Clay  was  beyond  cavil,  and  the 
sternly  upright  Adams  was  less  influenced  by  what 
people  might  think  of  his  actions  than  any  other 
president  since  Washington.  But  the  appointment 
was  no  doubt  ill-considered.  It  made  it  necessary 
for  Clay,  in  many  a  public  speech,  to  defend  him- 


284     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

self  against  the  cruel  imputation.    To  mention  the 
charge  to  Jackson,  whose  course  in  Florida  had 
been  severely  censured  by  Clay,  was  enough  to 
make  him  believe  it;  and  he  did  so  to  his  dying  day. 
It  is  not  likely  that  the  use  made  of  this  "griev 
ance"  had  much  to  do  with  Jackson's  victory  in 
1828.     The  causes  at  work  lay  far  deeper.     The 
population  west  of  the  Alleghanies  was  now  be 
ginning  to  count  for  much  in  politics.     Jackson 
was  our  first  western  president,  and  his  election 
marks  the  rise  of  that  section  of  our  country.    The 
democratic  tendency  was  moreover  a  growing  one. 
Heretofore  our  presidents  had  been  men  of  aristo 
cratic  type,  with  advantages  of  wealth,  or  educa 
tion,  or  social  training.     A  stronger  contrast  to 
them    than    Jackson    afforded    cannot    well    be 
imagined.    A  man  with  less  training  in  statesman 
ship  would  have  been  hard  to  find.    In  his  defects 
he  represented  average  humanity,  while  his  excel 
lencies  were  such  as  the  most  illiterate  citizen  could 
appreciate.    In  such  a  man  the  ploughboy  and  the 
blacksmith  could  feel  that  in  some  essential  respects 
they  had  for  president  one   of  their  own   sort. 
Above  all,  he  was  the  great  military  hero  of  the 
day,  and  as  such  he  came  to  the  presidency  as 
naturally  as  Taylor  and  Grant  in  later  days,  as 
naturally  as  his  contemporary  Wellington  became 
prime  minister  of  England.     A  man  far  more 
politic  and  complaisant  than  Adams  could  not  have 


ANDREW    JACKSON  285 

won  the  election  of  1828  against  such  odds.  He 
obtained  83  electoral  votes  against  178  for  Jack 
son.  Calhoun  was  re-elected  vice-president.  Jack 
son  came  to  the  presidency  with  a  feeling  that  he 
had  at  length  succeeded  in  making  good  his  claim 
to  a  violated  right,  and  he  showed  this  feeling  in 
his  refusal  to  call  on  his  illustrious  predecessor, 
who  he  declared  had  got  the  presidency  by  bargain 
and  sale. 

In  Jackson's  cabinet,  as  first  constituted,  Martin 
Van  Buren,  of  New  York,  was  secretary  of  state; 
Samuel  D.  Ingham,  of  Pennsylvania,  secretary  of 
the  treasury;  John  H.  Eaton,  of  Tennessee,  secre 
tary  of  war;  John  Branch,  of  North  Carolina, 
secretary  of  the  navy;  John  M.  Berrien,  of 
Georgia,  attorney-general;  William  T.  Barry,  of 
Kentucky,  postmaster-general.  As  compared  with 
earlier  cabinets — not  merely  with  such  men  as 
Hamilton,  Madison,  or  Gallatin,  but  with  Picker 
ing,  Wolcott,  Monroe,  or  even  Crawford — these 
were  obscure  names.  The  innovation  in  the  per 
sonal  character  of  the  cabinet  was  even  more 
marked  than  the  innovation  in  the  presidency.  The 
autocratic  Jackson  employed  his  secretaries  as 
clerks.  His  confidential  advisers  were  a  few  inti 
mate  friends  who  held  no  important  offices.  These 
men — William  B.  Lewis,  Amos  Kendall,  Duff 
Green,  and  Isaac  Hill — came  to  be  known  as  the 
"kitchen  cabinet."  Lewis  had  had  much  to  do  with 


286    LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

bringing  Jackson  forward  as  a  candidate  for  the 
presidency  in  1821.  Green  and  Hill  were  editors 
of  partisan  newspapers.  Kendall  was  a  man  of 
considerable  ability  and  many  good  qualities,  but 
a  "machine  politician"  of  the  worst  sort.  He  was 
on  many  occasions  the  ruling  spirit  of  the  adminis 
tration,  and  the  cause  of  some  of  its  most  serious 
mistakes.  Jackson's  career  as  president  cannot  be 
fully  understood  without  taking  into  account  the 
agency  of  Kendall;  yet  it  is  not  always  easy  to 
assign  the  character  and  extent  of  the  influence 
which  he  exerted. 

A  yet  more  notable  innovation  was  Jackson's 
treatment  of  the  civil  service.  The  earlier  presi 
dents  had  proceeded  upon  the  theory  that  public 
office  is  a  public  trust,  and  not  a  reward  for 
partisan  services.  They  conducted  the  business  of 
government  upon  business  principles,  and  as  long 
as  a  postmaster  showed  himself  efficient  in  dis 
tributing  the  mail  they  did  not  turn  him  out  of 
office  because  of  his  vote.  Between  April  30, 1789, 
and  March  4,  1829,  the  total  number  of  removals 
from  office  was  seventy- four,  and  out  of  this  num 
ber  five  were  defaulters.  Between  March  4,  1829, 
and  March  22,  1830,  the  number  of  changes  made 
in  the  civil  service  was  about  2,000.  This  was  the 
inauguration  upon  a  national  scale  of  the  so-called 
"spoils  system."  The  phrase  originated  with  Wil 
liam  L.  Marcy,  of  New  York,  who  in  a  speech  in 


ANDREW   JACKSON  287 

the  senate  in  1831  declared  that  "to  the  victors  be 
long  the  spoils."  The  system  had  been  perfected 
in  the  state  politics  of  New  York  and  Pennsyl 
vania,  and  it  was  probably  inevitable  that  it  should 
sooner  or  later  be  introduced  into  the  sphere  of 
national  politics.  The  way  was  prepared  in  1820 
by  Crawford,  when  he  succeeded  in  getting  the 
law  passed  that  limits  the  tenure  of  office  to  four 
years.  This  dangerous  measure  excited  very  little 
discussion  at  the  time.  People  could  not  under 
stand  the  evil  until  taught  by  hard  experience. 
Jackson  did  not  understand  that  he  was  laying  the 
foundations  of  a  gigantic  system  of  corruption, 
which  within  a  few  years  would  develop  into  the 
most  serious  of  the  dangers  threatening  the  con 
tinuance  of  American  freedom.  He  was  very 
ready  to  believe  ill  of  political  opponents,  and  to 
make  generalizations  from  extremely  inadequate 
data.  Democratic  newspapers,  while  the  campaign 
frenzy  was  on  them,  were  full  of  windy  declama 
tion  about  the  wholesale  corruption  introduced  into 
all  parts  of  the  government  by  Adams  and  Clay. 
Nothing  was  too  bad  for  Jackson  to  believe  of 
these  two  men,  and  when  the  fourth  auditor  of  the 
treasury  was  found  to  be  delinquent  in  his  accounts 
it  was  easy  to  suppose  that  many  others  were,  in 
one  way  or  another,  just  as  bad.  In  his  wholesale 
removals  Jackson  doubtless  supposed  he  was  doing 
the  country  a  service  by  "turning  the  rascals  out." 


288     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

The  immediate  consequence  of  this  demoralizing 
policy  was  a  struggle  for  control  of  the  patronage 
between  Calhoun  and  Van  Buren,  who  were  rival 
aspirants  for  the  succession  to  the  presidency. 

A  curious  affair  now  came  in  to  influence  Jack 
son's  personal  relations  to  these  men.  Early  in 
1829  Eaton,  secretary  of  war,  married  a  Mrs. 
Timberlake,  with  whose  reputation  gossip  had 
been  busy.  It  was  said  that  he  had  shown  her  too 
much  attention  during  the  lifetime  of  her  first  hus 
band.  Jackson  was  always  slow  to  believe  charges 
against  a  woman.  His  own  wife,  who  had  been 
outrageously  maligned  by  the  Whig  newspapers 
during  the  campaign,  had  lately  died,  and  there  was 
just  enough  outward  similarity  between  Eaton's 
marriage  and  his  own  to  make  him  take  Mrs. 
Eaton's  part  with  more  than  his  customary 
vehemence.  Mrs.  Calhoun  and  the  wives  of  the 
secretaries  would  not  recognize  Mrs.  Eaton.  Mrs. 
Donelson,  wife  of  the  president's  nephew,  and 
mistress  of  ceremonies  at  the  White  House,  took  a 
similar  stand.  Jackson  scolded  his  secretaries  and 
sent  Mrs.  Donelson  home  to  Tennessee;  but  all  in 
vain.  He  found  that  vanquishing  Wellington's 
veterans  was  a  light  task  compared  with  that  of 
contending  against  the  ladies  in  an  affair  of  this 
sort.  Foremost  among  those  who  frowned  Mrs. 
Eaton  out  of  society  was  Mrs.  Calhoun.  On  the 
other  hand,  Van  Buren,  a  widower,  found  himself 


ANDREW   JACKSON  289 

able  to  be  somewhat  more  complaisant,  and  accord 
ingly  rose  in  Jackson's  esteem.  The  fires  were 
fanned  by  Lewis  and  Kendall,  who  saw  in  Van 
Buren  a  more  eligible  ally  than  Calhoun.  Pres 
ently  intelligence  was  obtained  from  Crawford, 
who  hated  Calhoun,  to  the  effect  that  the  latter,  as 
a  member  of  Monroe's  cabinet,  had  disapproved 
of  Jackson's  conduct  in  Florida.  This  was  quite 
true,  but  Calhoun  had  discreetly  yielded  his  judg 
ment  to  that  of  the  cabinet  led  by  Adams,  and  thus 
had  officially  sanctioned  Jackson's  conduct. 

These  facts,  as  handled  by  Eaton  and  Lewis, 
led  Jackson  to  suspect  Calhoun  of  treacherous 
double-dealing,  and  the  result  was  a  quarrel  which 
broke  up  the  cabinet.  In  order  to  get  Calhoun's 
friends — Ingham,  Branch,  and  Berrien — out  of 
the  cabinet,  the  other  secretaries  began  by  resign 
ing.  This  device  did  not  succeed,  and  the  ousting 
of  the  three  secretaries  entailed  further  quarrelling, 
in  the  course  of  which  the  Eaton  affair  and  the 
Florida  business  were  beaten  threadbare  in  the 
newspapers,  and  evoked  sundry  challenges  to 
deadly  combat.  In  the  spring  and  summer  of  1831 
the  new  cabinet  was  formed,  consisting  of  Edward 
Livingston,  secretary  of  state;  Louis  McLane, 
treasury;  Lewis  Cass,  war;  Levi  Woodbury,  navy; 
Roger  B.  Taney,  attorney-general;  in  post-office 
no  change.  On  Van  Buren's  resignation,  Jackson 
at  once  appointed  him  minister  to  England,  but 


290    LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

there  was  a  warm  dispute  in  the  senate  over  his 
confirmation,  and  it  was  defeated  at  length  by  the 
casting-vote  of  Calhoun.  This  check  only  strength 
ened  Jackson's  determination  to  have  Van  Buren 
for  his  successor  in  the  presidency.  The  progress 
of  this  quarrel  entailed  a  break  in  the  "kitchen 
cabinet,"  in  which  Duff  Green,  editor  of  the  Tele 
graph  and  friend  of  Calhoun,  was  thrown  out. 
His  place  was  taken  by  Francis  Preston  Blair,  of 
Kentucky,  a  man  of  eminent  ability  and  earnest 
patriotism.  To  him  and  his  sons,  as  energetic  op 
ponents  of  nullification  and  secession,  our  country 
owes  a  debt  of  gratitude  which  can  hardly  be  over 
stated.  Blair's  indignant  attitude  toward  nulli 
fication  brought  him  at  once  into  earnest  sympathy 
with  Jackson.  In  December,  1830,  Blair  began 
publishing  the  Globe,  the  organ  henceforth  of 
Jackson's  party.  For  a  period  of  ten  years,  until 
the  defeat  of  the  Democrats  in  1840,  Blair  and 
Kendall  were  the  ruling  spirits  in  the  administra 
tion.  Their  policy  was  to  re-elect  Jackson  to  the 
presidency  in  1832,  and  make  Van  Buren  his  suc 
cessor  in  1836. 

During  Jackson's  administration  there  came 
about  a  new  division  of  parties.  The  strict  con- 
structionists,  opposing  internal  improvements,  pro 
tective  tariff,  and  national  banks,  retained  the  name 
of  Democrats,  which  had  long  been  applied  to 
members  of  the  old  Republican  party.  The  term 


ANDREW    JACKSON  291 

Republican  fell  into  disuse.     The  loose  construc- 
tionists,  under  the  lead  of  Clay,  took  the  name  of 
Whigs,  as  it  suited  their  purpose  to  describe  Jack 
son  as  a  kind  of  tyrant ;  and  they  tried  to  discredit 
their  antagonists  by  calling  them  Tories,  but  the 
device  found  little  favor.    On  strict  constructionist 
grounds  Jackson  in  1829  vetoed  the  bill  for  a  gov 
ernment  subscription  to  the  stock  of  the  Maysville 
turnpike  in  Kentucky,  and  two  other  similar  bills 
he  disposed  of  by  a  new  method,  which  the  Whigs 
indignantly  dubbed  a  "pocket  veto."    The  struggle 
over  the  tariff  was  especially  important  as  bring 
ing  out  a  clear  expression  of  the  doctrine  of  nulli 
fication  on  the  part  of  South  Carolina.    Practically, 
however,    nullification    was    first    attempted    by 
Georgia  in  the  case  of  the  disputes  with  the  Chero 
kee  Indians.    Under  treaties  with  the  Federal  gov 
ernment  these  Indians  occupied  lands  that  were 
covered  by  the  white  people.     Adams  had  made 
himself  very  unpopular  in  Georgia  by  resolutely 
defending  the  treaty  rights  of  these  Indians.    Im 
mediately  upon  Jackson's  election,  the  state  gov 
ernment  assumed  jurisdiction  over  their  lands,  and 
proceeded  to  legislate  for  them,  passing  laws  that 
discriminated   against    them.      Disputes    at    once 
arose,  in  the  course  of  which  Georgia  twice  refused 
to  obey  the  supreme  court  of  the  United  States. 
At  the  request  of  the  governor  of  Georgia,  Jackson 
withdrew  the  Federal  troops  from  the  Cherokee 


292     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

country,  and  refused  to  enforce  the  rights  that  had 
been  guaranteed  to  the  Indians  by  the  United 
States.  His  feelings  toward  Indians  were  those 
of  a  frontier  fighter,  and  he  asked,  with  telling 
force,  whether  an  eastern  state,  such  as  New  York, 
would  endure  the  nuisance  of  an  independent  In 
dian  state  within  her  own  boundaries. 

In  his  sympathy  with  the  people  of  Georgia  on 
the  particular  question  at  issue,  he  seemed  to  be 
conniving  at  the  dangerous  principle  of  nullifica 
tion.  These  events  were  carefully  noted  by  the 
politicians  of  South  Carolina.  The  protectionist 
policy,  which  since  the  peace  of  1815  had  been 
growing  in  favor  at  the  north,  had  culminated  in 
1828  in  the  so-called  "tariff  of  abominations." 
This  tariff,  the  result  of  a  wild  helter-skelter 
scramble  of  rival  interests,  deserved  its  name  on 
many  accounts.  It  discriminated,  with  especial  un 
fairness,  against  the  southern  people,  who  were 
very  naturally  and  properly  enraged  by  it.  A  new 
tariff,  passed  in  1832,  modified  some  of  the  most 
objectionable  features  of  the  old  one,  but  still  failed 
of  justice  to  the  southerners.  Jackson  was  op 
posed  to  the  principle  of  protective  tariffs,  and 
from  his  course  with  Georgia  it  might  be  argued 
that  he  would  not  interfere  with  extreme  measures 
on  the  part  of  the  south.  During  the  whole  of 
Jackson's  first  term  there  was  more  or  less  vague 
talk  about  nullification.  The  subject  had  a  way 


ANDREW   JACKSON  293 

of  obtruding  itself  upon  all  sorts  of  discussions,  as 
in  the  famous  debates  on  Foote's  resolutions,  which 
lasted  over  five  months  in  1830,  and  called  forth 
Webster's  immortal  speech  in  reply  to  Hayne.  A 
few  weeks  after  this  speech,  at  a  public  dinner  in 
commemoration  of  Jefferson's  birthday,  after 
sundry  regular  toasts  had  seemed  to  indicate  a  drift 
of  sentiment  in  approval  of  nullification,  Jackson 
suddenly  arose  with  a  volunteer  toast:  "Our  Fed 
eral  Union:  it  must  be  preserved."  Calhoun  was 
prompt  to  reply  with  a  toast  and  a  speech  in  be 
half  of  "Liberty,  dearer  than  the  Union,"  but  the 
nullifiers  were  greatly  disappointed  and  chagrined. 
In  spite  of  this  warning,  South  Carolina  held  a  con 
vention,  November  19,  1832,  and  declared  the 
tariffs  of  1828  and  1832  to  be  null  and  void  in 
South  Carolina;  all  state  officers  and  jurors  were 
required  to  take  an  oath  of  obedience  to  this  edict ; 
appeals  to  the  Federal  supreme  court  were  pro 
hibited  under  penalties;  and  the  Federal  govern 
ment  was  warned  that  an  attempt  on  its  part  to 
enforce  the  revenue  laws  would  immediately  pro 
voke  South  Carolina  to  secede  from  the  Union. 

The  ordinance  of  nullification  was  to  take  effect 
February  1,  1833,  and  preparations  for  war  were 
begun  at  once.  On  December  16  the  president 
issued  a  proclamation,  in  which  he  declared  that  he 
should  enforce  the  laws  in  spite  of  any  and  all  re 
sistance  that  might  be  made,  and  he  showed  that 


294     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

he  was  in  earnest  by  forthwith  sending  Lieut.  Far- 
ragut  with  a  naval  force  to  Charleston  harbor,  and 
ordering  Gen.  Scott  to  have  troops  ready  to  enter 
South  Carolina  if  necessary.    In  the  proclamation, 
which  was  written  by  Livingston,  the  president  thus 
defined  his  position:  "I  consider  the  power  to  annul 
a  law  of  the  United  States,  assumed  by  one  state, 
incompatible  with  the  existence  of  the  Union,  con 
tradicted  expressly  by  the  letter  of  the  constitution, 
unauthorized  by  its  spirit,  inconsistent  with  every 
principle  on  which  it  was  founded,  and  destructive 
of  the  great  object  for  which  it  was  formed."  Gov. 
Hayne,    of    South    Carolina,    issued    a    counter- 
proclamation,  and  a  few  days  afterward  Calhoun 
resigned  the  vice-presidency,  and  was  chosen  to 
succeed  Hayne  in  the  senate.    Jackson's  determined 
attitude  was  approved  by  public  opinion  through 
out  the  country.    By  the  southern  people  generally 
the  action  of  South  Carolina  was  regarded  as  pre 
cipitate  and  unconstitutional.    Even  in  that  state 
a  Union  convention  met  at   Columbia,  and  an 
nounced  its  intention  of  supporting  the  president. 
In  January,  Calhoun  declared  in  the  senate  that 
his  state  was  not  hostile  to  the  Union,  and  had  not 
meditated  an  armed  resistance;  a  "peaceable  seces 
sion,"  to  be  accomplished  by  threats,  was  probably 
the  ultimatum  really  contemplated.     In  spite  of 
Jackson's  warning,  the  nullifiers  were  surprised  by 
his  unflinching  attitude,  and  quite  naturally  re- 


ANDREW   JACKSON  295 

garded  it  as  inconsistent  with  his  treatment  of 
Georgia.  When  February  1  came  the  nullifiers  de 
ferred  action.  In  the  course  of  that  month  a  bill 
for  enforcing  the  tariff  passed  both  houses  of 
congress,  and  at  the  same  time  Clay's  compromise 
tariff  was  adopted,  providing  for  the  gradual  re 
duction  of  the  duties  until  1842,  after  which  all 
duties  were  to  be  kept  at  20  per  cent.  This  compro 
mise  enabled  the  nullifiers  to  claim  a  victory,  and 
retreat  from  their  position  with  colors  flying. 

During  the  nullification  controversy  Jackson 
kept  up  the  attacks  upon  the  United  States  bank 
which  he  had  begun  in  his  first  annual  message  to 
congress  in  1829.  The  charter  of  the  bank  would 
expire  in  1836,  and  Jackson  was  opposed  to  its 
renewal.  The  grounds  of  his  opposition  were 
partly  sound,  partly  fanciful.  There  was  a  whole 
some  opposition  to  paper  currency,  combined  with 
great  ignorance  of  the  natural  principles  of  money 
and  trade,  as  illustrated  in  a  willingness  to  tolerate 
the  notes  of  local  banks,  according  to  the  chaotic 
system  prevalent  between  Jackson's  time  and 
Lincoln's.  There  was  something  of  the  dema 
gogue's  appeal  to  the  prejudice  that  ignorant  peo 
ple  are  apt  to  cherish  against  capitalists  and  cor 
porations,  though  Jackson  cannot  be  accused  of 
demagogy  in  this  regard,  because  he  shared  the 
prejudice.  Then  there  was  good  reason  for  be 
lieving  that  the  bank  was  in  some  respect  misman- 


296     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

aged,  and  for  fearing  that  a  great  financial  insti 
tution,  so  intimately  related  to  the  government, 
might  be  made  an  engine  of  political  corruption. 
Furthermore,  the  correspondence  between  Sec. 
Ingham  and  Nicholas  Biddle,  president  of  the 
bank,  in  the  summer  of  1829,  shows  that  some  of 
Jackson's  friends  wished  to  use  the  bank  for 
political  purposes,  and  were  enraged  at  Biddle's 
determination  in  pursuing  an  independent  course. 
The  occasion  was  duly  improved  by  the  "kitchen 
cabinet"  to  fill  Jackson's  ears  with  stories  tending 
to  show  that  the  influence  of  the  bank  was  secretly 
exerted  in  favor  of  the  opposite  party.  Jackson's 
suggestions  with  reference  to  the  bank  in  his  first 
message  met  with  little  favor,  especially  as  he 
coupled  them  with  suggestions  for  the  distribution 
of  the  surplus  revenue  among  the  states.  He  re 
turned  to  the  attack  in  his  two  following  messages, 
until  in  1832  the  bank  felt  obliged  in  self-defence 
to  apply,  somewhat  prematurely,  for  a  renewal  of 
its  charter  on  the  expiration  of  its  term.  Charges 
brought  against  the  bank  by  Democratic  repre 
sentatives  were  investigated  by  a  committee,  which 
returned  a  majority  report  in  favor  of  the  bank. 
A  minority  report  sustained  the  charges.  After 
prolonged  discussion,  the  bill  to  renew  the  charter 
passed  both  houses,  and  on  July  10,  1832,  was 
vetoed  by  the  president.  An  attempt  to  pass  the 


ANDREW    JACKSON  297 

bill  over  the  veto  failed  of  the  requisite  two-thirds 
majority. 

Circumstances  had  already  given  a  flavor  of  per 
sonal  contest  to  Jackson's  assaults  upon  the  bank. 
There  was  no  man  whom  he  hated  so  fiercely  as 
Clay,  who  was  at  the  same  time  his  chief  political 
rival.  Clay  made  the  mistake  of  forcing  the  bank 
question  into  the  foreground,  in  the  belief  that 
it  was  an  issue  upon  which  he  was  likely  to  win  in 
the  coming  presidential  campaign.  Clay's  move 
ment  was  an  invitation  to  the  people  to  defeat 
Jackson  in  order  to  save  the  bank;  and  this 
naturally  aroused  all  the  combativeness  in  Jack 
son's  nature.  His  determined  stand  impressed 
upon  the  popular  imagination  the  picture  of  a 
dauntless  "tribune  of  the  people"  fighting  against 
the  "monster  monopoly."  Clay  unwisely  attacked 
the  veto  power  of  the  president,  and  thus  gave 
Benton  an  opportunity  to  defend  it  by  analogies 
drawn  from  the  veto  power  of  the  ancient  Roman 
tribune;  which  in  point  of  fact  it  does  not  at  all 
resemble.  The  discussion  helped  Jackson  more 
than  Clay.  It  was  also  a  mistake  on  the  part  of 
the  Whig  leader  to  risk  the  permanence  of  such  an 
institution  as  the  U.  S.  bank  upon  the  fortunes  of 
a  presidential  canvass.  It  dragged  the  bank  into 
politics  in  spite  of  itself,  and,  by  thus  affording 
justification  for  the  fears  to  which  Jackson  had 
appealed,  played  directly  into  his  hands.  In  this 


298     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

canvass  all  the  candidates  were  for  the  first  time 
nominated  in  national  conventions.  There  were 
three  conventions — all  held  at  Baltimore.  In  Sep 
tember,  1831,  the  Anti-Masons  nominated  William 
Wirt,  of  Virginia,  in  the  hope  of  getting  the 
national  Republicans  or  Whigs  to  unite  with  them ; 
but  the  latter,  in  December,  nominated  Clay.  In 
the  following  March  the  Democrats  nominated 
Jackson,  with  Van  Buren  for  vice-president. 

During  the  year  1832  the  action  of  congress  and 
president  with  regard  to  the  bank  charter  was 
virtually  a  part  of  the  campaign.  In  the  election 
South  Carolina  voted  for  candidates  of  her  own — 
John  Floyd,  of  Virginia,  and  Henry  Lee,  of 
Massachusetts.  There  were  219  electoral  votes  for 
Jackson,  49  for  Clay,  11  for  Floyd,  and  7  for 
Wirt.  Jackson  interpreted  this  overwhelming  vic 
tory  as  a  popular  condemnation  of  the  bank  and 
approval  of  all  his  actions  as  president.  The  en 
thusiastic  applause  from  all  quarters  which  now 
greeted  his  rebuke  of  the  nullifiers  served  still 
further  to  strengthen  his  belief  in  himself  as  a 
"saviour  of  society"  and  champion  of  "the  people." 
Men  were  getting  into  a  state  of  mind  in  which 
questions  of  public  policy  were  no  longer  argued 
upon  their  merits,  but  all  discussion  was  drowned 
in  cheers  for  Jackson.  Such  a  state  of  things  was 
not  calculated  to  check  his  natural  vehemence  and 


ANDREW    JACKSON  299 

disposition  to  override  all  obstacles  in  carrying  his 
point. 

He  now  felt  it  to  be  his  sacred  duty  to  demolish 
the  bank.  In  his  next  message  to  congress  he 
created  some  alarm  by  expressing  doubts  as  to  the 
bank's  solvency  and  recommending  an  investiga 
tion  to  see  if  the  deposits  of  public  money  were 
safe.  In  some  parts  of  the  country  there  were 
indications  of  a  run  upon  the  branches  of  the  bank. 
The  committee  of  ways  and  means  investigated 
the  matter,  and  reported  the  bank  as  safe  and 
sound,  but  a  minority  report  threw  doubt  upon 
these  conclusions,  so  that  the  public  uneasiness  was 
not  allayed.  The  conclusions  of  the  members  of 
the  committee,  indeed,  bore  little  reference  to  the 
evidence  before  them,  and  were  determined  purely 
by  political  partisanship.  Jackson  made  up  his 
mind  that  the  deposits  must  be  removed  from  the 
bank.  The  act  of  1816,  which  created  that  insti 
tution,  provided  that  the  public  funds  might  be 
removed  from  it  by  order  of  the  secretary  of  the 
treasury,  who  must,  however,  inform  congress  of 
his  reasons  for  the  removal.  As  congress  resolved, 
by  heavy  majorities,  that  the  deposits  were  safe  in 
the  bank,  the  spring  of  1833  was  hardly  a  time 
when  a  secretary  of  the  treasury  would  feel  himself 
warranted,  in  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  the 
act,  to  order  their  removal.  Sec.  MsLane  was  ac 
cordingly  unwilling  to  issue  such  an  order.  In 


300     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

what  followed,  Jackson  had  the  zealous  co-opera 
tion  of  Kendall  and  Blair.  In  May,  McLane  was 
transferred  to  the  state  department,  and  was  suc 
ceeded  in  the  treasury  by  William  J.  Duane,  of 
Pennsylvania.  The  new  secretary,  however,  was 
convinced  that  the  removal  was  neither  necessary 
nor  wise,  and,  in  spite  of  the  president's  utmost 
efforts,  refused  either  to  issue  the  order  or  to  re 
sign  his  office.  In  September,  accordingly,  Duane 
was  removed,  and  Roger  B.  Taney  was  appointed 
in  his  place.  Taney  at  once  ordered  that  after 
October  1  the  public  revenues  should  no  longer  be 
deposited  with  the  national  bank,  but  with  sundry 
state  banks,  which  soon  came  to  be  known  as  the 
"pet  banks."  Jackson  alleged,  as  one  chief  reason 
for  this  proceeding,  that,  if  the  bank  were  to  con 
tinue  to  receive  public  revenues  on  deposit,  it  would 
unscrupulously  use  them  in  buying  up  all  the  mem 
bers  of  congress  and  thus  securing  an  indefinite 
renewal  of  its  charter.  This,  he  thought,  would  be 
a  death-blow  to  free  government  in  America.  His 
action  caused  intense  excitement  and  some  com 
mercial  distress,  and  prepared  the  way  for  further 
disturbance. 

In  the  next  session  of  the  senate  Clay  introduced 
a  resolution  of  censure,  which  was  carried  after  a 
debate  which  lasted  all  winter.  It  contained  a 
declaration  that  the  president  had  assumed  "au 
thority  and  power  not  conferred  by  the  constitu- 


ANDREW   JACKSON  301 

tion  and  laws,  but  in  derogation  of  both."  Jack 
son  protested  against  the  resolution,  but  the  senate 
refused  to  receive  his  protest.  Many  of  his  ap 
pointments  were  rejected  by  the  senate,  especially 
those  of  the  directors  of  the  bank,  and  of  Taney 
as  secretary  of  the  treasury.  An  attempt  was 
made  to  curtail  the  president's  appointing  power. 
On  the  other  hand,  many  of  the  president's  friends 
declaimed  against  the  senate  as  an  aristocratic  insti 
tution,  which  ought  to  be  abolished.  Benton  was 
Jackson's  most  powerful  and  steadfast  ally  in  the 
senate.  Benton  was  determined  that  the  resolution 
of  censure  should  be  expunged  from  the  records 
of  the  senate,  and  his  motion  continued  to  be  the 
subject  of  acrimonious  debate  for  two  years.  The 
contest  was  carried  into  the  state  elections,  and  some 
senators  resigned  in  consequence  of  instructions 
received  from  their  state  legislatures.  At  length, 
on  January  16, 1837,  a  few  weeks  before  Jackson's 
retirement  from  office,  Benton's  persistency 
triumphed,  and  the  resolution  of  censure  was  ex 
punged.  Meanwhile  the  consequence  of  the  violent 
method  with  which  the  finances  had  been  handled 
were  rapidly  developing.  Many  state  banks,  in 
cluding  not  a  few  of  the  "wildcat"  species,  had 
been  formed,  to  supply  the  paper  currency  that  was 
supposed  to  be  needed.  The  abundance  of  paper, 
together  with  the  rapid  westward  movement  of 
population,  caused  reckless  speculation  and  an  in- 


302    LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

flation  of  values.     Extensive  purchases  of  public 
lands  were  paid  for  in  paper  until  the  treasury 
scented  danger,  and  by  the  president's  order  in 
July,  1836,  the  "specie  circular"  was  issued,  direct 
ing  that  only  gold  or  silver  should  be  received  for 
public  lands.     This  caused  a  demand  for  coin, 
which  none  but  the  "pet  banks"  could  hope  to  suc 
ceed  in  meeting.    But  these  banks  were  at  the  same 
time  crippled  by  orders  to  surrender,  on  the  fol 
lowing  New  Year's  day,  one  fourth  of  the  surplus 
revenues  deposited  with  them,  as  it  was  to  be  dis 
tributed  as  a  loan  among  the  states.     The  "pet 
banks"  had  regarded  the  deposits  as  capital  to  be 
used  in  loans,  and  they  were  now  suddenly  obliged 
to  call  in  these  loans.    These  events  led  to  the  great 
panic  of  1837,  which  not  only  scattered  thousands 
of  private  fortunes  to  the  winds,  but  wrecked  Van 
Buren's  administration  and  prepared  the  way  for 
the  Whig  victory  of  1840. 

In  foreign  affairs  Jackson's  administration  won 
great  credit  through  its  enforcement  of  the  French 
spoliation  claims.  European  nations  which  had 
claims  for  damages  against  France  on  account  of 
spoliations  committed  by  French  cruisers  during 
the  Napoleonic  wars  had  found  no  difficulty  after 
the  peace  of  1815  in  obtaining  payment;  but  the 
claims  of  the  United  States  had  been  superciliously 
neglected.  In  1831,  after  much  fruitless  negotia 
tion,  a  treaty  was  made  by  which  France  agreed  to 


ANDREW    JACKSON  303 

pay  the  United  States  $5,000,000  in  six  annual  in 
stalments.  The  first  payment  was  due  on  February 
2,  1833.  A  draft  for  the  amount  was  presented 
to  the  French  minister  of  finance,  and  payment  was 
refused  on  the  ground  that  no  appropriation  for 
that  purpose  had  been  made  by  the  chambers. 
Louis  Philippe  brought  the  matter  before  the 
chambers,  but  no  appropriation  was  made.  Jack 
son  was  not  the  man  to  be  trifled  with  in  this  way. 
In  his  message  of  December,  1834,  he  gravely 
recommended  to  congress  that  a  law  be  passed 
authorizing  the  capture  of  French  vessels  enough 
to  make  up  the  amount  due.  The  French  govern 
ment  was  enraged,  and  threatened  war  unless  the 
president  should  apologize — not  a  hopeful  sort  of 
demand  to  make  of  Andrew  Jackson.  Here  Great 
Britain  interposed  with  good  advice  to  France, 
which  led  to  the  payment  of  the  claim  without 
further  delay.  The  effect  of  Jackson's  attitude 
was  not  lost  upon  European  governments,  while  at 
home  the  hurrahs  for  "Old  Hickory"  were  louder 
than  ever.  The  days  when  foreign  powers  could 
safely  insult  us  were  evidently  gone  by. 

The  period  of  Jackson's  presidency  was  one  of 
the  most  remarkable  in  the  history  of  the  world, 
and  nowhere  more  remarkable  than  in  the  United 
States.  It  was  signalized  by  the  introduction  and 
rapid  development  of  railroads,  of  ocean  naviga 
tion  through  Ericsson's  invention  of  the  screw- 


304     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

propeller,  of  agricultural  machines,  anthracite  coal, 
and  friction  matches,  of  the  modern  type  of  daily 
newspaper,  of  the  beginnings  of  such  cities  as 
Chicago,  of  the  steady  immigration  from  Europe, 
of  the  rise  of  the  Abolitionists  and  other  reformers, 
and  of  the  blooming  of  American  literature  when 
to  the  names  of  Bryant,  Cooper,  and  Irving  were 
added  those  of  Longfellow,  Whittier,  Prescott, 
Holmes,  and  Hawthorne.  The  rapid  expansion  of 
the  country  and  the  extensive  changes  in  ideas  and 
modes  of  living  brought  to  the  surface  much  crude- 
ness  of  thought  and  action.  As  the  typical  popular 
hero  of  such  a  period,  Andrew  Jackson  must 
always  remain  one  of  the  most  picturesque  and 
interesting  figures  in  American  history.  His 
ignorance  of  the  principles  of  statesmanship,  the 
crudeness  of  his  methods,  and  the  evils  that  have 
followed  from  some  of  his  measures  are  obvious 
enough  and  have  often  been  remarked  upon.  But 
in  having  a  president  of  this  type  and  at  such  a 
time  we  were  fortunate  in  securing  a  man  so  sound 
in  most  of  his  impulses,  of  such  absolute  probity, 
truthfulness,  and  courage,  and  such  unflinching 
loyalty  to  the  Union.  Jackson's  death,  in  the  year 
in  which  Texas  was  annexed  to  the  United  States, 
marks  in  a  certain  sense  the  close  of  the  political 
era  in  which  he  had  played  so  great  a  part.  From 
the  year  1845  the  Calhoun  element  in  the  Demo- 


ANDREW    JACKSON  305 

cratic  parry  became  more  and  more  dominant  until 
1860,  while  the  elements  more  congenial  with  Jack 
son  and  variously  represented  by  Benton,  Blair, 
and  Van  Buren,  went  to  form  an  important  part 
of  the  force  of  Republicans  and  War  Democrats 
that  finally  silenced  the  nullifiers  and  illustrated  the 
maxim  that  the  Union  must  be  preserved. 

Jackson  died  at  his  home,  "The  Hermitage," 
near  Nashville.  The  principal  biographies  of  him 
are  by  James  Parton  (3  vols.,  New  York,  1861) 
and  William  G.  Sumner  (Boston,  1882) ;  also 
"General  Jackson"  (New  York,  1892) ,  contributed 
by  James  Parton  to  the  "Great  Commanders" 
series.  Other  biographies  are  by  John  H.  Eaton 
(Philadelphia,  1817) ;  P.  A.  Goodwin  (Hartford, 
1832) ;  William  Cobbett  (New  York,  1834) ;  Amos 
Kendall  (1843)  ;  Oliver  Dyer  (New  York,  1891). 
For  accounts  of  his  administration,  see  in  general, 
Benton's  "Thirty  Years'  View,"  the  memoirs  of 
John  Q.  Adams,  the  histories  of  the  United  States 
by  Schouler  and  Von  Hoist,  and  the  biographies  of 
Clay,  Webster,  Adams,  Calhoun,  Benton,  and 
Edward  Livingston.  See,  also,  Mayo's  "Political 
Sketches  of  Eight  Years  in  Washington"  (Balti 
more,  1839) .  The  famous  "Letters  of  Major  Jack 
Downing"  (New  York,  1834),  a  burlesque  on 
Jackson's  administration,  were  wonderfully  popu 
lar  in  their  day. 


306     LIVES  OF  THE  PRESIDENTS 

His  wife,  RACHEL  (born  in  1767;  died  at  The 
Hermitage,  Tenn.,  December  22,  1828),  was  the 
daughter  of  Col.  John  Donelson,  a  wealthy  Vir 
ginia  surveyor,  who  owned  extensive  iron-works 
in  Pittsylvania  County,  Va.,  but  sold  them  in  1779 
and  settled  in  French  Salt  Springs,  where  the  city 
of  Nashville  now  stands.  He  kept  an  account  of 
his  journey  thither,  entitled  "Journal  of  a  Voyage, 
intended  by  God's  Permission,  in  the  Good  Boat 
'Adventure,'  from  Fort  Patrick  Henry,  on  Hol- 
ston  River,  to  the  French  Salt  Springs,  on  Cum 
berland  River,  kept  by  John  Donelson."  Subse 
quently  he  removed  to  Kentucky,  where  he  had 
several  land-claims,  and,  after  his  daughter's  mar 
riage  to  Capt.  Lewis  Robards,  he  returned  to  Ten 
nessee,  where  he  was  murdered  by  unknown  per 
sons  in  the  autumn  of  1785.  (For  an  account  of 
the  peculiar  circumstances  of  her  marriage  to  Jack 
son,  see  page  257.)  Mrs.  Jackson  went  to  New 
Orleans  after  the  battle,  and  was  presented  by  the 
ladies  of  that  city  with  a  set  of  topaz  jewelry.  In 
her  portrait  at  The  Hermitage,  painted  by  Earle, 
she  wears  the  dress  in  which  she  appeared  at  the 
ball  that  was  given  in  New  Orleans  in  honor  of 
her  husband,  and  of  which  the  vignette  in  this  vol 
ume  is  a  copy.  She  went  with  Gen.  Jackson  to 
Florida  in  1821,  to  Washington  and  Charleston  in 
1824,  and  to  New  Orleans  in  1828.  For  many 
years  she  had  suffered  from  an  affection  of  the 


ANDREW    JACKSON  307 

heart,  which  was  augmented  by  various  reports 
that  were  in  circulation  regarding  her  previous 
career,  and  her  death  was  hastened  by  overhearing 
a  magnified  account  of  her  experiences.  She  was 
possessed  of  a  kind  and  attractive  manner,  was 
deeply  religious  and  charitable,  and  adverse  to 
public  life. — Their  niece,  EMILY  (born  in  Tennes 
see;  died  there  in  December,  1836) ,  was  the  young 
est  daughter  of  Capt.  John  Donelson  and  the  wife 
of  Andrew  J.  Donelson.  She  presided  in  the 
White  House  during  the  administration  of  Presi 
dent  Jackson,  who  always  spoke  of  her  as  "my 
daughter."  During  the  Eaton  controversy  she  re 
ceived  Mrs.  Eaton  on  public  occasions,  but  refused 
to  recognize  her  socially. — His  daughter-in-law, 
SARAH  YORK,,  the  wife  of  his  adopted  son,  Andrew 
Jackson  (born  in  1806;  died  at  The  Hermitage, 
Nashville,  Tenn.,  August  23,  1887),  also  presided 
at  the  White  House  during  President  Jackson's 
administration.  Her  son,  Andrew,  was  graduated 
at  the  U.  S.  military  academy  in  1858,  and  served 
in  the  Confederate  army,  in  which  he  was  colonel 
of  the  First  Regiment  of  Tennessee  Artillery. 


PORTRAITS  OF  THE 
LADIES  OF  THE  WHITE  HOUSE 

FROM    1789   TO    1837 


MARTHA    WASHINGTON 

ABIGAIL    ADAMS 
MARTHA    RANDOLPH 

DOLLY    MADISON 

ELIZABETH    MONROE 

LOUISA   C.    ADAMS 

RACHEL   JACKSON 


Mrs.  George  Washington. 

After  the  painting  IJT  Gilbert  Stuart. 


Mrs.  John  Adams 


Mrs.  Thomas  Mann  Randolph. 

Daughter  of  Thomas  Jefferson. 


Mrs.  James  Madison. 


Mrs.  James  Monroe. 

LfUr  her  only  portrait,  painted  in  P»rJe,  179C. 


Mrs.  John  Quincy  Adams. 


Mrs.  Andrew  Jackson. 

After  <he  lainting  \,j  £arle,  at  the  Hermitage. 


THIS  BOOK  IS  DUE  ON  THE  LAST  DATE 
STAMPED  BELOW 


AN  INITIAL  FINE  OF  25  CENTS 


WILL  BE  ASSESSED   FOR   FAILURE  TO   RETURN 
THIS   BOOK   ON   THE   DATE   DUE.   THE  PENALTY 
WILL  INCREASE  TO  SO  CENTS  ON  THE  FOURTH 
DAY    AND    TO    $1.OO    ON    THE    SEVENTH     DAY 
OVERDUE. 

i 

F(*  24  1938  ' 

*8Nov39RH| 

ECA   US   1945 

M/i\s 

9  i»* 

23W61AE 

«.-,x\ 

WSTTO  tts 

II 

JAN  2  3  1QR1 

VT'  W  (Lf      fc/V/« 

NOV    4     1P47 

vfvOV  30  1365  G4 

s              REC'D 

^Mnv'56WJ 

QEC7-»65-8AM 

^l^QWw"J 

LOAN  DEFT. 

REC'D  LD 

iir\\/  o      IM    ^ 

.  a{fiftf  4JfS 

NOV  e 

OEC13  Wii  *° 

RP^^ 

DECS   *67  M 

1  LD  21-95m  7/37 

•  PT. 


Em 


Vii 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


